


Dreams, Schemes, and In-Between

by Phoenix_Falls



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gift Fic, Mostly Fluff, fic request, sorta AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-03-15 13:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3448496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenix_Falls/pseuds/Phoenix_Falls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.” - Federico Garcia Lorca</p><p>Basically this is a story about one pair of obtuse idiots in love trying to set up another pair of obtuse idiots in love and vice versa (Jemily and Morcia endgame)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Derek Morgan draped his left arm over the backrest of the vinyl booth and swung his gaze easily away from where it had been focused and onto the mostly empty seidel in front of him. He pondered the remnants of the amber coloured liquid for a moment before lifting the glass and draining the rest, the action causing him to look directly at the person who sat across from him. 

Emily Prentiss’ whole upper body was turned sideways in her seat, her right elbow propped up on the backrest and her attentions wholly focused _else_ where. From the look on her face (which could only be described as ‘utterly smitten’), it was clear Emily was completely oblivious to everything except what she was staring at. Morgan grinned to himself and turned his head to follow her line of sight to confirm what he already knew. Though the bar was full—usual even for a Thursday night—there was a mostly unobstructed view of the end of the bar counter where two blondes stood talking animatedly to each other.

Penelope Garcia was the easiest of the pair to spot, naturally. While Garcia’s black and white patterned dress was unusually demure (for her), not only was the exuberant woman gesticulating excitedly as she spoke which easily drew eyes towards them, but the intense pink of the shrug she was wearing that matched the chunky earrings visible under carefully waved hair dared anyone to _try_ and look away from her. Next to her, leaning forward onto her elbows on the bar top, Jennifer Jareau’s expression was torn between bursting out into laughter and looking absolutely scandalized by whatever Garcia was telling her.

She apparently settled on a mixture between the two and though they definitely couldn’t hear either woman from their positions, the mirth on JJ’s face as she gripped Garcia’s arm while she laughed was as bright as the close-to-neon pink shoes on the hacker’s feet. Emily let out a short sigh that was clearly involuntary and tonally somewhere between wistful and dreamy, causing Morgan to set his empty beer mug down on the liquid warped table loudly. Emily jumped at the sound and immediately jerked her gaze away from the bar counter and onto her friend, her body language closing in on itself slightly as she turned to sit properly and look at him bemusedly.

“ _What_ , _Morgan_?” Emily shot at him, her voice unnecessarily terse. 

“ _What_ , _Morgan_?” Derek mimicked in an exaggerated lilt and doing nothing to stop his smile from widening. He ignored the warning look on her face and leaned over the table towards her like he was sharing an important secret. “What I wanna know,” he continued, his voice more serious but extremely amused nevertheless. “Is how long you’ve been looking at JJ like that when no one’s looking?” 

“Like what?” Emily asked in a forced casual tone, dropping her eyes away from the annoyingly cocksure expression on her friend’s face to study her fingers.

Morgan glanced briefly at the bar counter where the other two members of their party were still waiting for a new pitcher of beer. “Like you’ve been stranded in Death Valley for a week in the middle of July and she’s a glass of water.” He let out a surprised yelp that turned into a belly laugh as she kicked him none too gently under the table, her eyes flying back to his face and her expression a clear demand to go no further. He raised his eyebrows as she opened her mouth to offer an excuse, daring her to deny it.

Emily winced and nodded her head in defeat, coming clean now that she’d been caught. “ _God_ ,” she breathed out embarrassedly. “Is it really that bad?” 

Morgan leaned back again and shrugged. “Let’s just say that if you look up ‘subtle’ in the dictionary, your picture isn’t gonna be there.”

Emily put a hand over her face like she could push the colour rising in her cheeks back down and groaned through her fingers.

“So c’mon,” he continued, upturning his palms and flapping his fingers in a ‘lay it on me’ gesture. “Tell Papa Derek what’s up.”

“First of all,” Emily started defensively, moving her hand away from her face to jab a finger at the air in front of his chest. “You’re like five years younger than me. Secondly,” she screwed her eyes shut briefly as a melodramatic shudder rocked her shoulders. “If you call yourself _Papa Derek_ ever again, I’m going to shoot you.” She looked like she was going to say something else, but dropped her hand to drum her fingers on the tabletop and didn’t continue.

“Thirdly?” Morgan prodded with a laugh. The smile faded from his face when the brunette remained silent and he leaned forward again. “What’s going on?” he asked seriously.

“Derek…” Emily pleaded in a near whine, glancing towards the bar counter.

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to,” he promised earnestly. “But it looks like you could use someone who’d listen.”

“You’re not wrong; but…” Emily agreed with a tight nod before tilting her head to one side to indicate where their friends were still standing.

Morgan leaned across the table again, this time to judge where in the beer-getting process they were. They frequented this particular bar as a group a lot. There was a near constant jovial atmosphere, the drink selection was decent, the music wasn’t too loud or too obnoxious, and there was nearby parking if you knew where to look for it, all of which ensured the place was fairly well populated—tonight being no exception. The exception was, however, that they were currently understaffed. Usually there were three bartenders and a bar-back but tonight there was only one frazzled bartender and the terrified bar-back who was trying her best but was clearly overwhelmed. It didn’t look like their friends had even placed the order yet. 

Garcia and JJ seemed totally unperturbed about the indefinite wait for a lull in the patrons calling out demands, totally engrossed in their own conversation; they weren’t in any hurry. The team had been taken off rotation for a while after several hellish months of back-to-back out of area cases and thus were on a mini vacation of sorts; if you counted still having to go into the office for consults and paperwork ‘vacation’ (which they did). They had time. They had more time than usual. He looked back at Emily who seemed to realize that too and she sighed heavily. Just because she _needed_ to talk, didn’t necessarily mean she _wanted_ to.

“I gotta say,” Morgan drawled with a smirk while getting comfortable in his seat again. “I didn’t realize things were this serious.”

 Emily frowned thoughtfully and tilted her head slightly. “ _Things_?”

Morgan raised his eyebrows and shot his friend a disbelieving look. “Really, Princess? That’s how we’re gonna play this?” he shook his head when she didn’t answer. He loved the woman like a sister, but she was easily one of the most emotionally stubborn people he knew. And he knew Aaron Hotchner. “How long have you been in love with JJ, Emily?” he asked directly but gently, noting the nervous look she threw towards the counter at the question as if their friends would be able to hear them over the din. 

“Long enough that I can’t remember—and don’t _want_ to remember—what it’s like not to be.” The brunette admitted quietly after a moment of hesitation.

Derek studied his friend for a moment as she rolled her tongue nervously over her lips. He didn’t see what the big deal was. Clearly something was wrong if she’d been in love with JJ that long and not only hadn’t said anything to her but made a deliberate effort to keep it from everyone else. Them both being women couldn’t be the issue. JJ had never hidden her bisexuality from anyone on the team so it wasn’t like Emily didn’t know. About a month after she joined the team, Emily herself had told them she was homoflexible, a term Derek had never heard before then and needed explained to him (‘almost always gay,’ she’d said, ‘but sometimes…’); but obviously their compatible orientations were anything but a hindrance. Interoffice dalliances were against protocol, sure; but they weren’t just coworkers, they were family and they’d shielded each other against protocol violations for things much more serious than dating a colleague. Besides, most of those dating bylaws had been written because of Rossi anyways.

The idea that mutual attraction could have been the problem was so absurd he didn’t even think of it as an option to be considered. Anyone with a pulse who had been around JJ and Emily when they were within ten feet of each other could tell they were attracted to one another. He knew for a fact neither of them was seeing anyone seriously. Working for the BAU tended to severely shorten the lifespan of any of their relationships. Morgan had never said so, but he often thought that the two women used the job as an excuse to end casual relationships that started to aspire to more. They didn’t profile each other but he knew his friends well and both JJ and Emily tended towards emotional inaccessibility (except, he always internally pointed out, with each other) and it was easier and not _entirely_ incorrect to put all the blame of failed attempts at long-term relationships on the job. Derek rubbed the back of his head trying to figure out what was going on and coming up with nothing except his usual confusion over why they hadn’t been dating ages ago.

“I’m not seeing the problem, Em.” He admitted finally with a shake of his head.

Emily scowled petulantly and pressed herself against the backrest as if she had to physically distance herself from his obliviousness lest it was catching. “In what world,” she started crossly while folding her arms over her chest, “is having unrequited feelings for one of your best friends not ‘a problem’?”

Emily’s expression was serious and more than a little annoyed but Derek couldn’t help it; he laughed. She had barely gotten to the end of her perturbed (and rhetorical) question when the genuine bark of laughter burst out of him before he even knew it was there in order to stop it.

“Hah-hah, asshole.” The profiler across from him grumbled, sinking slightly in her seat sulkily. This insensitive shit head was supposed to be her friend. When Morgan wouldn’t stop his damned chuckling that was bordering on barely contained guffaw, Emily kicked him again. Harder than the last time. Her lips curled into a remorselessly childish grin when his laughter ended abruptly in a pained shout as he immediately bent to rub his hand against his shin.

“ _Damn, woman_!” Morgan hissed. “I’ve seen you kick down doors with more gentleness!”

“Well those doors didn’t piss me off as much as you do.” She reasoned irritatedly.

“You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry.” He said honestly, righting himself and holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “It’s just… _unrequited_ , Prentiss? Do you even pay attention to your own interactions with her?”

Emily eyed him suspiciously. She was fairly sure what he was going to say and that she didn’t want to hear it, but she swept one arm out in a ‘go ahead’ motion anyway.

“Let me run through the obvious facts,” Derek started, casually holding up one hand so he could tick off his points with his fingers. “Number one: you guys are _always_ together.”

“So?” The look on the brunette’s face was as exasperated as her voice and she rolled her eyes. “ Of _course_ we are. We’re _friends_ and we _work_ together.”

Morgan shook his head, anticipating that response. “Okay but when no one can find JJ, everyone knows to ask you and vice versa. Even outside work. And we can all gauge how serious a situation is by how long it takes one of you to find the other. When you quit? We only knew that something was really wrong when JJ’d said you hadn’t been answering any of her calls.”

Emily shrugged, unconvinced. So they were close, so what? So it was usually a very cold day in the hottest part of hell when one of them didn’t answer or return the other’s calls, big deal. All that really highlighted was that JJ was an attentive friend. Garcia usually knew where she was too, but that didn’t mean the hacker wanted to date her.

“Number two,” Morgan continued unfazed. “You guys always find some way or some reason to sabotage each other from dating seriously.”

Emily snorted and said; “now you’re just exaggerating. That’s not even _close_ to true.”

Morgan grinned as if he had been hoping for that reaction. “You think so, huh?” he glanced towards the bar again. More people had arrived at some point and the high counter was barely visible from their position but he could just make out JJ looking embarrassedly forlorn while she was saying something to Garcia with a hand pressed to her forehead. “I’m not gonna shame you with a full run down, even though I could. Let’s just go with recent history. What about that program specialist?” 

Emily let out a short laugh. “You’re telling me you think _JJ_ made me break it off with Miranda?”

“Didn’t she?” he asked smugly in challenge. 

“ _No_.” 

Derek steepled his fingers together under his chin and gazed at the ceiling for a moment, pretending to be engrossed in the act of recalling the exact circumstances around the break up. “If memory serves correctly—and believe me Princess, it does—you and JJ were together outside work way more than usual the whole time you and Miranda were dating.”

“Yeah,” Emily huffed while rolling her eyes. “You remember because you were _with_ us most of the time.” 

“True, but who usually came up with the plans?”

“JJ,” she concurred a little reluctantly. “But it’s not like Andi was never there.”

“Also true, but keeping that in mind—who usually ended up having to share a cab at the end of the night because they were going in the same direction?”

“Me, Garcia, and JJ.”

“But more importantly, you and JJ. Garcia only ever needed a lift to the park and rides. ”

“Oh my god, will you _stop_?” Emily almost laughed; this was ridiculous. “Listen to yourself, will you? You’re saying that Jay being considerate of where Andi lived by picking stuff closer to her was what? A ploy to get me to hang out alone in a cab with her for an extra half hour?”

Morgan shrugged. “You could have stayed at Miranda’s.”

“Not with the herd of insomniac brontosaurs’ living directly above her.” Emily had hated staying at Miranda’s. She still had no idea how many people had lived in the condo above her ex’s, but she was certain they were all made out of two ton boulders. Everyone—including Miranda—knew she would have preferred to _walk_ the nearly thirty-five miles between their apartments than stay over there.

“Bingo.” Morgan pointed out proudly when he saw Emily make the connection he’d been leading her towards. “And stuff like that happens every time either of you dates someone for more than a few weeks.”

“You’re reaching.” Emily insisted dismissively. There was no way she was going to let his absurd apophenia plant a false hope in her. That was dangerous and would ultimately be disastrous. “How did you even become a profiler?” she ribbed. “You can’t just chalk up coincidence to purposeful deliberation like that. Anyway, I stopped seeing Miranda because she hated the job; you _know_ that. There’s only so many dinners and weekend getaways you can cancel or leave in the middle of before it gets too much. JJ had nothing to do with it. And regardless of how I feel about her, I can’t believe you’d think I’d purposely screw something up for Jennifer. What am I, twelve?”

“I’m not saying you guys do it on purpose,” Morgan explained unapologetically, propping his elbows up on the table. “But that doesn’t change that you do.” He didn’t point out that Miranda may have told _Emily_ that she resented her job (and that was probably true too), but if his friend had been half as interested in the program specialist as she was in JJ, she would have noticed that Miranda subtly directed a lot of that resentment at the petite blonde. “What about last person JJ was dating? The detective from New Orleans?”

“ _Crawfish_?” Emily snorted and shook her head. “I didn’t do anything. What could I have anyway? He was barely around here.”

“Come on! You were always pointing out the guy’s faults in front of JJ; you don’t think your opinion means anything to her? You don’t think that all that flirting you refused to tone down around Will had an impact on their relationship?”

 “ _Believe_ me, that was on a short timer from the beginning.” Emily informed him flatly. “The only thing they really had in common was interlocking genitals.” Though it would prove her point entirely, she couldn’t tell Morgan that after a pregnancy scare JJ had realized that Will wanted more than she wanted to offer so Emily added, “ask her yourself. And _so what_ if I was flirting? It’s just part of our friendship.” She gestured to the space between them. “ _We_ flirt and it doesn’t mean anything. It’s not my fault he was insecure.”

Derek laughed lowly, futilely pushing further into his seat in case Emily decided to visit violence on his shin again. “It doesn’t mean anything with us because as fine as you know I am, you’ve managed to resist the Morgan Charms. So far.” He grinned when the brunette made a show of rolling her eyes. “The way you and JJ flirt? You guys don’t even have to _say_ anything most of the time. It’s just the way you look at each other and anyone can see that. _Will_ could see that and if it was just one-sided, it wouldn’t have mattered; but it wasn’t, so it did.” He gestured with his hands that he was resting his case and crossed his arms. “You guys are way too into each other to be with other people. Just ask her out.” He grinned. “There’s no way she’d turn you down. If she does, I’ll do your paperwork for a month.”

“This?” she circled a finger towards Morgan while shaking her head. “This is half of why I couldn’t talk about it. I don’t need these kinds of thoughts in my head. The other half being that you can only just barely keep anything from Garcia, even when you want to. And you know her; she’d implode with the effort of not saying anything to JJ. They’re practically sisters; JJ would notice something was up and I can’t risk that. So what, I’m a little _too_ serious with a lot of our flirtations; JJ isn’t and that’s _fine_. My feelings aside, I’ve never been so close to someone else, not like this. I’d rather I have her as a friend than not at all and I’m _not_ going to ruin what we already have by making it awkward because _you_ think it’s a good idea.” She glared sternly at him. “And neither are you, you big hypocrite.”

Morgan frowned. “Hypocrite? What’s that supposed to mean?” 

This time is was Emily’s turn to look smug. “What it means, _Papa Derek_ , is that you should get off my back about what I should do with my feelings unless you’re planning on telling Garcia you’d forsake your Lothario ways for the rest of your days if she even so much as playfully suggested the idea under her breath from two rooms over.”

Derek stiffened slightly and shook his head, avoiding his friend’s knowing stare. “It’s not even like that.”

“Yeah, right.” Emily scoffed. “Like I haven’t seen you spacing out on Garcia when you think you’re being sneaky.” She shook her head amusedly. “You’re definitely not and never have been. _I’ve_ just been too good a friend to call you on it.”

“That’s different.”

Emily nodded amiably and turned towards the bar counter again to check on the subjects of their conversation. The two blondes had finally gotten the new pitcher and were slowly but surely making their way through the crowd back to the table, running interference for each other on approaching interlopers angling for phone numbers. “Mmhm,” she hummed patronizingly. “Of course it is. After all, it’s not every day the infamous Derek Morgan: Casanova of the DC Metro Area, noted Don Juan in at least seven states, gets _this_ terrified of his own emotional attachment to some woman he hasn’t even slept with.”

“ _Hey_ ,” Morgan retorted immediately, his tone offended and sharp. “She isn’t just _some_ _woman_ , Prentiss.”

Emily grinned at having made her point and scooted further into the booth in anticipation of their friends’ return to the table. “Yep,” she reiterated cheekily. “Totally different.”

“That wasn’t fair.” He huffed, scooting to the other side of his bench as well.

“Sure it was.” She insisted brightly. “At least it’s common knowledge that PG’s into you and you’re just being a big chicken shit.” She held up her hand to stop whatever he’d opened his mouth to say. “Common knowledge; but if you don’t want to let on to her just how much of a chance she _really_ has, that’s your choice. For now, anyways.”

“Okay, I get it.” Morgan grumbled in response to the implied theat. “JJ won’t find out from me.”

“JJ won’t find out _what_ from you?” the blonde in question asked with an amused sort of suspiciousness as she reoccupied her seat next to Emily and reached for the brunette’s mug to refill it before her own. 

“What Prentiss is planning for your birthday.” Morgan covered easily, taking the pitcher when JJ pushed it towards him.

“That’s not for another six months.” She pointed out skeptically, looking back and forth between her friends. They looked like they’d been caught doing something wrong, but what wasn’t immediately apparent. She exchanged a look with Garcia who was sitting across from her but though the hacker shrugged her indication that she could tell they were hiding something too, she clearly didn’t know what it was either. 

“It’s never too early to map out your annual public humiliation.” Emily pointed out with a mischievous smile as she took a much-needed drink. 

JJ laughed at the absurdity of Emily even just _contemplating_ anything that would make her remotely uncomfortable let alone following through on it. She leaned towards the brunette briefly to nudge her shoulder heavily against the profiler’s. “If you say so, Em.” She retorted, her voice full of good-natured disbelief. “I’ll figure you out.” She promised lightly with a smirk. “I have _all kinds_ of ways to make you talk.”

Emily choked slightly on her beer and tried to will away the immediate rush of warmth to her face, kicking Morgan lightly in warning under the table when he started to snicker. She noted Garcia’s interested eyebrow raise with an internal frown as Derek tried to turn his amusement into a clearing of his throat.


	2. Chapter 2

Penelope Garcia technically should not have been playing online RPGs at work. Well, not even technically—especially after what happened _last_ time—but that was a long time ago and those inventory slots weren’t going to fill themselves; besides, she was _so_ much more careful now. It wasn’t like she didn’t semi-regularly do things on Uncle Sam’s time that she wasn’t supposed to _technically_ be doing anyway. Despite her self-assuredness that all her babies would to tell her right away if someone was even thinking of sniffing around where they didn’t belong, she still quickly closed her laptop when there was a steady knock at her door. Garcia was certain no one would _actually_ reprimand her, but it was late Friday afternoon and she’d managed to avoid incurring the paternalistic frown of Hotch all day and she wanted to keep it that way.

“Enter, mortal.” She called, scanning the consultation request she’d pulled up on her main screen before turning her head to see who was stepping into her lair. A bright smile blossomed on her face as Morgan entered her office and closed the door behind himself to lean against it. “Hey, Tiger,” she purred, turning away from her computer. “What brings you here aside from my magnetic pull?”

Morgan shook his head amusedly, a grin on his face. “Do I need another reason?”

“Of _course_ not,” she soothed with an obviously pretended affront, “but what will the neighbours think?” she picked up a metallic pink pen topped with a feathered bauble that swayed merrily from side to side and fiddled with it idly. “Business or pleasure, Hot Stuff?”

“Oh it’s always pleasure with you, Baby Girl.” He assured silkily, crossing his arms comfortably. “But I’m not here to talk about work, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Garcia smiled broadly and pushed herself towards the end of her desk, scooting out another office chair with her foot in an offer for him to sit down. “What’s on your mind, sweetness?”

Morgan dropped into the chair and leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs, wondering how he should start. He had promised not to tell JJ about Emily’s feelings and he intended on keeping that promise not because of the thinly veiled threat Prentiss had visited on him, but simply because Emily had wanted him to. Even if he thought that the situation could be completely resolved positively if Emily was just direct about her feelings for once—and he did—he also knew her well enough to know that she’d keep inventing, and believing, every excuse she could come up with as to why JJ didn’t seriously reciprocate her attraction or feelings. He wanted to help, he really did, but Derek had never had a head for friendly espionage, which was why he needed to go to a professional: to Penelope.

“You remember when we were at the bar?” Morgan started, unsure if just coming out and saying what he wanted was a betrayal of his word.

Garcia rolled her eyes and turned back towards the consult file to read the information more carefully. “You mean  _last night_ ?” she asked, a teasing tone in her voice as she wiggled her pen idly between her fingers. She darted a glance over at him and clucked her tongue thoughtfully. “Did you meet some hottie while we weren’t looking and need advice?”

Derek chuckled easily and leaned back in his chair. “Now how could I look at anyone else when you’re around?” 

Penelope smirked but didn’t turn away from the screen. “I wonder that all the time, gorgeous. Are you gonna tell me what’s up or are we just going to play ‘unresolved sexual tension’ all day?” she looked over again and gave him an obvious once over. “Not that I’m complaining, if that’s the plan.”

Morgan was glad Garcia wasn’t looking at him anymore so she missed the dopey smile he tried to erase from his face by wiping a hand over it and sighing. “I just…has JJ said anything to you lately?”

Garcia tilted her head to one side, only half listening. “About what?”

“About Prentiss?”

That got the hacker’s attention and she swiveled in her chair to face him again. “Emily?” she repeated a little suspiciously while narrowing her eyes. “What would JJ say to me about Emily?”

Morgan raised his eyebrows. “You tell me.”

Garcia pursed her lips and gave him a stern look, “what’s going on, Derek?” if something was wrong and JJ hadn’t told her…

Derek rubbed the back of his head and didn’t answer right away, trying to keep in mind Emily’s very valid point that it was nigh impossible for Penelope to keep something from JJ (and her equally valid—and _proven_ —point that he couldn’t keep anything from Garcia. But hey, at least he was helping). “You ever notice how Emily and JJ are with each other? I mean not just the flirting… but how they _really_ are?” he asked, eying her with an expression that pleaded for her to connect the dots for herself.

Garcia leaned forward in her chair with a cautiously gleeful gleam in her eyes. “Have I ever… a blindfolded man in a dark room would notice ‘ _how they really are_.’” When Morgan breathed out a sigh of relief, the analyst tossed her bauble-topped pen onto her desk so she could press her hands together. “Why exactly are you asking?”

Morgan hesitated a moment before saying, “I don’t think I’m really supposed to,”

“What grade are we in?” Garcia cut him off amusedly while leaning back again. “Although, given the situation, you sort of have to wonder.” She shrugged, “you’re here now and you’re here for a reason, so…”

“I’m wondering if JJ has said anything to you about how she feels about Emily.”

Penelope sighed and her expression was almost disappointed. “Oh my god. No offense, but has it gotten _that_ bad that she told you too? Not that I don’t think it’s sweet she’s trying to give me a break, but when did she tell you?” she kept going before Morgan could ask her to clarify. “It was when she conned you into playing darts with her after she scared everyone else away, wasn’t it?” she nodded as if that could be the only answer. “So how many different ways did she find to say ‘I’m so disgustingly in love with Emily Prentiss that all my organs are being replaced with cartoon hearts’ _this_ time?”

“Wait wait wait.” Morgan insisted, raising a hand in case Garcia was going to continue rambling. “JJ told you she’s _in love_ with Prentiss? In those _exact_ words?”

Garcia frowned. “Not that she’d have to but yeah, _of course_ she did; she tells me everything, you know that. Why do you sound so surprised that she’d,” Her eyes widened and the gleeful look returned quickly as she interrupted herself. “Oh my god, unless you came here to talk about Emily and _not_ JJ?” she leaned forward again.

Morgan nodded, “I came here to talk about Emily.” He couldn’t help but smile when Garcia let out a childish squeal and clapped her hands together once but frowned slightly when she said ‘I _knew_ it’ in a self-satisfied manner. “Hold up,” he started again. “You _didn’t_ know the feelings were mutual?”

Penelope reached over and patted him affectionately on the cheek. “And here you had me convinced that you weren’t just a pretty face.” She teased. “They’re the only people who _don’t_ know but since Em’s never confided in me about it, JJ insists that means we couldn’t know for sure and swore me to secrecy on pain of,” she looked away quickly as an uncharacteristic blush touched her cheeks. “Well, on pain of painful things anyways. Since she refused to defer tothe endless wisdom of the Goddess Of All Things Knowable And Unknowable, I did the only thing I could and started dropping hints to Emily hoping she’d open up to me.”

“And?”

She rolled her eyes. “ _And_ nothing, obviously. Either I’m way too indirect, or she was blatantly disregarding my fabulous trail of breadcrumbs the size of Texas.”

Morgan chuckled and shook his head. “Indirect is definitely not a word I’d used to describe you, Garcia.” He grinned wolfishly at the mock-offended look on her face. “But that’s why we love you.” He crossed his arms and got back on topic. “I knew Emily was into her, but I honestly didn’t realize it was so serious until last night. She doesn’t think there’s a real chance and made me promise JJ wouldn’t hear it from me, but she didn’t say anything about hearing it from you.” A small lie, but one he was sure he could weasel out of with little difficulty once everything worked out.

The blonde sucked her teeth disapprovingly and crossed her arms as well. “If it were _that_ simple, don’t you think I would have done that already? They’re both denser than…” she trailed off while searching for an optimal end to the metaphor and finally gave up with a casual wave of her hand. “Denser than something I’ll ask Reid about later.”

“So what now? Lock them in the file room and hope for the best?”

“Tempting,” she mulled. “But ‘the best’ would end up being a broken door and two _really_ pissed off ladies who have guns.” Morgan nodded in helpless acknowledgement of the truth as Penelope continued. “Besides, we both know how they are. They’ll be adorably embarrassed about direct intervention and will feel obligated to start something to appease us instead of letting it happen organically, you know? As much as I _want_ that to be a good idea, if they don’t figure it out on their own—at the first sign of a rough patch they’ll both take it as ‘a sign’ and give up.” She shook her head. “I love our girls, I really do, but sometimes they’re about as sharp as a cloth bag full of mashed potatoes.”

“I definitely can’t argue with that.” Morgan responded with a chuckle. “So what do we do? I don’t feel right just sitting around waiting for them to figure it out when we know what we know. We’ll all be collecting pensions by then and I for one would like to see them happy _before_ I’m ready for my gold watch.” He made a grand gesture to encompass Garcia. “Which is why I’m here. With the expert.”

“Beauty _and_ brains!” Garcia gave a dramatic sigh and clutched her hands to her chest. “My only weaknesses.” She glanced over at the clock on one of her computer monitors. “As much as I would love nothing more than to spend the last two hours we have at work plotting and scheming—I may or may not have spent like eighty-five percent of today combing through every dragon cave on the Western Continent looking for stuff to upgrade my armour and if I don’t have at _least_ three more consults done by close of business day, Hotch is going to do that face-thing that makes me feel like I’m grounded and it’ll ruin my whole weekend.”

Derek’s question came out of his mouth before it was fully formed in his brain, “Well, what are you doing after work then?”

Penelope frowned slightly in mild confusion. “It’s Friday.”

Morgan raised his eyebrows. “All day until midnight,” he agreed. “Oh. You’ve got plans?” he asked the question in an apologetic tone but the inkling of guilt that had started to creep up on him disappeared as she shook her head.

“Nope, not today; but _it’s Friday_.” She repeated. “Don’t _you_ have plans?”

He did have plans. Now that he thought of it, he had plans until Saturday night—or Sunday morning if he was lucky—but when he’d asked, he hadn’t thought of it. He _should have_ offered a rain check. They could get together on Sunday, right? It wasn’t anything…they were just hanging out to talk about Emily and JJ; they could get together on Sunday. “Nah,” he said, shaking his head and already making a mental note to send some cancelation texts as soon as he got out of Garcia’s office. “I’m all yours, Baby Girl.”

Garcia gave a kittenish grin and looked like she was going to say something in immediate response but her lips twitched slightly and she cleared her throat before saying, “I can work with that.”

Morgan smiled back and stood up from his chair, stretching exaggeratedly as he stifled a yawn. “Korean Grill in Woodbridge?” he tossed out with one hand on the doorknob, and the other already fishing in his pocket for his personal phone.

Garcia swiveled her chair back to face her computer and picked up the pen she’d tossed on the keyboard. “Last one there is buying.” She asserted in agreement, waving her pen at him.

“Hope you’re bringing your credit card, cause I can eat a lot.” Derek teased with a loud pat to his stomach as he stepped out of Penelope’s office, pulling the door shut on her good-natured chuckle. He pushed his phone back into his pocket, now more interested in quickly making an acceptable dent in the pile of consults still on his desk than the texts he needed to send out. He could do that once he got to the restaurant because he was about as interested in getting there last as he was in letting Penelope pay when she showed up after him.


	3. Chapter 3

Morgan held his cellphone loosely in one hand, shaking his head slightly while his thumb skated purposely over the screen as he formed his reply to the _very_ annoyed woman he’d made casual plans with. He’d already canceled one set of plans with absolutely no problem, but Giselle seemed to be making up for the earlier amicability. Really how was it _his_ fault that Giselle didn’t tell him she’d wanted him to meet her friends? Although to be fair, had she told him that, that would have given him _more_ incentive to bail out on their nebulous weekend arrangements. It wasn’t just her regular friends; he’d sort of met them already. No, she wanted him to meet her _two best friends since high school_.

Derek absolutely did not want to meet Giselle’s friends because he knew where that would lead. When they wanted you and their closest friends to approve of each other, they were setting you directly on the path to meeting the parents and he _definitely_ didn’t want to meet Giselle’s parents. Once you met The Parents, you were in deep. Too deep. Much, _much_ deeper than he wanted to be with Giselle and he had thought she understood that, that he had been clear. Apparently he had thought wrong. He frowned as his phone buzzed and scanned the latest message before rolling his eyes slightly and exiting out of the conversation. The last several messages had ended or started with ‘we’re done talking’ but it seemed as if Giselle wasn’t anywhere near done talking.

He did feel a little guilty, but what could he do? He’d apologized every way he could for everything he _should_ but it was the fact that he wasn’t budging on refusing to be sorry that she wanted more when he didn’t that was causing the issue. Well, that and they should have really been having this discussion face to face but at least this way, he was more clearly at fault. The silver lining here being that Morgan habitually bailed out of relationships by making something his fault. It wasn’t a secret he did this, everyone close to him knew the only things he was committed to were the team and his family—and the team _was_ his family in so many ways that it was simpler to let his friends assume that’s all it was. No need to delve deeper.

Derek Morgan was a smooth-talking, carefree libertine with a heart of gold who left a trail of physically sated, but emotionally wanting women in his wake. It still wasn’t exactly a terrible reputation to have by most counts, but it wasn’t completely true either. He’d been like that even before going to Northwestern, nevermind the BAU. It was easy to play into the role of the womanizer because that’s what people wanted to see, but he always got stuck in the same place—he always got found out.

Derek could play the Lothario perfectly fine as long as he didn’t spend too much time with one woman. If they bought into the ladies man persona, everything was copacetic and running smoothly. It was when they found out (or he accidentally let on) that he was a sensitive romantic who had a hard time trusting his heart to anyone that the problems would start. They would take it as a sign to move forward and he as a sign to back out. It wasn’t as if he didn’t care for any of the women he was with—quite the contrary really—and therein laid the problem. The women he saw…he knew he couldn’t make a single one of them happy in the long term. Of course he cared about them and he had even loved a few, but they’d never be happy with him because he knew if he were ever offered an ultimatum, he would always choose the job. He’d never been with anyone that he was willing to even hypothetically entertain redirecting his commitment from where he wanted to focus it.

First, his excuse had been to focus on football and grades so he could get out of his situation and into a good school. Then he got into a good school and his focus became on football and grades so he could _stay_ in a good school and make something of himself. Then after his injury, instead of swinging his energy towards his girlfriend at the time like she’d wanted, he’d focused on the police department so he could still make something of himself. Then the focus was on the bomb squad, and now the BAU. He _was_ making something of himself now while making the world less safe for murderers and victimizers in the process, but there was no end goal anymore; there was no ‘just until this next step’ he could tell someone to wait for because there was no next step.

What he was doing with the BAU was the most fulfilling thing he’d ever done and he knew he’d never be satisfied doing anything else. He was still that young boy—that man—who couldn’t fully give himself to a romantic partner out of fear and doubt, he wasn’t naïve about that, but he had never been with anyone who made him want to try. It wasn’t fair to anyone he got involved with to let a relationship run its course to the inevitably fiery end just because something was good _now_. And neither did Derek think it fair to himself to get serious with someone he couldn’t feel the _most_ like himself with—be the most _happy_ with—or try to make something work when he knew he’d disappoint them as soon as that inescapable ultimatum would come up. Which consistently led him to various permutations of the conversation he was avoiding continuing with Giselle at a frequency he didn’t care to think about let alone admit.

Only, Emily hadn’t been totally wrong in her assessment of his feelings for Garcia at the bar the previous night and _that_ was a problem too. Maybe even the _biggest_ problem.

Derek knew that if he asked Penelope out on an actual date she’d say yes; he wasn’t as endearingly (but frustratingly) obtuse as Emily and JJ. He had also never been so freely himself around someone he was attracted to as he was with Penelope. The question of if he could be happy with her was such an emphatic yes, that asking it seemed like the only exception to the ‘there are no stupid questions’ guideline. He knew without a doubt that he’d never have to worry about being given the ‘job or me’ ultimatum because he knew with complete certainty that if they were together, she would never ask him such a thing. It probably wouldn’t even cross her mind as something she’d  _want_ to ask.

But the scary part, the  _terrifying_ part, was that if they got together…if they were in a relationship in the way he was able to picture so clearly in his mind that he sometimes very nearly confused himself into thinking they were memories…if she asked, if she needed him to walk away from the job—he would and he would without feeling like a difficult choice had been made. He could see where Emily was coming from, that she thought he was in her situation save for the serious reciprocation of at least  _some_ thing but when he’d told her it ‘wasn’t like that,’ it hadn’t just been a line.

Derek was the first person on the team Emily allowed to get close to her and they were alike in a lot of ways: they were both obstinate as all hell, they both preferred to project a certain image and attitude that was sometimes contrary to their true selves, they both had a hard time trusting, they were both short tempered (and incredibly passionate) about defending what they knew was right to the point of being almost casually self-sacrificing both physically and emotionally—and that was just the ‘big stuff.’ He truly thought of her as a sister and without offense meant to the sisters he shared blood with, sometimes it felt like Emily was something more than that. They weren’t just friends who worked together, they were partners. Whenever it counted, they had each other’s backs and sometimes that included saving each other’s lives. That afforded a certain kind of trust that few people got to experience with others in their lives.

So when Emily had turned the tables on him at the bar, he had wanted to tell her what he’d meant by his situation being different. Had wanted to, but had stopped himself for the same reason he wanted to tell her. She hadn’t been wrong about him being scared but she had seen his hesitancy, his (apparently less than stellar) attempts at hiding how much he was into Garcia, and had misinterpreted it as fear of attachment. If there was one thing about Penelope Garcia that didn’t scare him, it was how he felt about her. No, what kept him from saying anything, from _starting_ anything was the thought…the _feeling_ , that he wouldn’t be enough for her.

What he felt for Garcia didn’t dismiss or cheapen the love he’d felt for others, but it was so sure and so harmonious with the ideas of how he thought love should be, that it seemed more tangible, more possible: more dangerous. There was part of him, and not a small part, that was in almost constant panic at how easy it could be because he’d never felt quite like this about anyone before which meant that the resulting pain would be so much worse than anything he’d known before. Maybe it was selfish, but he wanted to protect himself from even the off chance of that kind of agony. Every thought that popped up unbidden from some desolate inward space that whispered how undeserving he was seemed to have total merit.

Could he be what she needed? What she wanted? What she _deserved_? Sometimes the answer was unequivocally ‘no’ and sometimes he had absolutely no idea but both of those answers led to him not saying anything. As much as he knew she’d be receptive to serious advances and as much as he wanted to make those advances, the last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her or give her cause to lose faith in him. If he didn’t know the answers to those questions, he couldn’t possibly try to be with her. He couldn’t risk destroying something and someone so dear to him because of his own deep seeded insecurities and issues. It was ironic that it was _because_ Garcia made him want to try that he couldn’t and he’d wanted to explain that to Emily.

Emily would have been able to put things in perspective for him, would have laid everything out neatly in her mind and picked through it with him and just the knowledge that she would have made him oddly grateful towards her despite the fact that he’d let her believe her own conclusions. Derek was also well aware that Emily was likely very capable of getting him to unbind himself from his own hesitation and sense of dread to make a move. He still had enough willpower not to let that happen. Emily would never push him, but once you asked her for advice on something, that was as good as giving her runway clearance and there was no stopping her. As much as Morgan wanted Emily’s advice and perspective, he didn’t want to let go of the fear. The fear was keeping him safe; the fear was keeping _Penelope_ safe.

His phone vibrated violently against the wooden tabletop and he sighed as a way to brace himself for opening his messages. Right now, all he wanted was for Giselle to stop texting him every three minutes and Garcia to get there so they could figure out how to get Emily and JJ to stumble _into_ each other instead of _around_ each other. Preferably over a budae jjigae hotpot.

As if in response to his thoughts (or the rumble of his stomach), a thud on the table surface across from him caused him to look up. A huge handbag in the shape of a cat’s head and coloured in a shade so outlandishly blue that the neon yellow of its nose and the inside of its ears seemed like a conservative choice grinned blankly at him showing too-white teeth cut from some kind of pearlescent material. Peering over the top of the bag, he watched Garcia she gracefully divested herself of a fashion-over-function scarf and bright green jacket, slipping them both over the back of her chair. He found himself returning the smile she was giving him without knowing why they were smiling.

“Denser then neutrons.” Garcia said chipperly as she sat down across from him.

Morgan let the confused amusement show in his voice as he said; “Say again?”

“Neutrons.” Garcia repeated while pouring herself some green tea from the ceramic pot on the table. “Remember I was trying to figure out what could _possibly_ be denser than Jayje and Emily?” she refilled his teacup as well and didn’t wait for him to answer. “Well I asked Reid before I left what the densest thing in the world is. He said something about os…oz…ozzie…” she shrugged dismissively and leaned back in her chair, picking up her cup. “Anyway, he said _something_ about _something_ before getting excited that I said the densest _thing_ and not the densest _material_ and changed his answer. So, JJ and Emily are denser than neutrons.”

Morgan chuckled with a shake of his head and was content to watch Garcia peruse the menu with a rhythmic bob of her head though if she were bopping along to some song in her mind or was just in agreement with the choices listed before her, he wasn’t sure. They ordered and fell into easy conversation, not turning towards the reason for their meeting up in the first place until they were nearly done with their meals.

“I think we should just trick them into going on dates.” Garcia was saying, chewing thoughtfully on the last of her mandu and nodding as if that settled it.

“I’m not following.” Morgan said, futilely trying to will himself into putting his silverware down in an attempt to give his poor stomach a rest. “Didn’t we already say locking them in a room together would be a bad idea for everyone involved?”

 “Is _that_ your idea of a date?” she shook her head and tsked, her voice taking on affected sympathy. “ _Oh, honey_ …” Penelope laughed at the expression on Morgan’s face that indicated he was about to defend either his choice of words or his ability to plan a date. Probably both. “You’re a caramel coated love god and I’m sure there’s _nothing_ wrong with your technique.” She assured him with merriment in her eyes. “But we can’t be too obvious and these have to be dates where the goal is to get them to _talk_ to each other.”

Derek wanted to object to the implication that he didn’t have much experience with dating where the end goal wasn’t sex but it was the truth so he shrugged amenably.

“Anyway,” Garcia continued. “You’ve gotta think outside the box. While _I_ more than appreciate the in-your-face sex panther routine, this is JJ and Emily we’re talking about.”

“So?” He felt like his methods could be applied here. They worked, didn’t they? He didn’t see how it would be different just because they were both women. Besides, he’d been Emily’s wingman more than a few times and knew that when she wanted to, she could be quite the licentious lady-killer herself. JJ he wasn’t as sure of since they didn’t often hang out just the two of them and so he wasn’t as acquainted with her ‘routine,’ but he’d seen her engage in meaningless flirting plenty of times. She seemed to play it a little coyer than Emily; but in much the same way JJ orchestrated the BAU without anyone really thinking about it, she was definitely the one in charge of all the instances of flirting he’d seen her do with others. Morgan thought that they’d be a good fit that way; if they could get them into a physical enough environment, something would be bound to happen and then they’d _have_ to talk. “We do it my way, and we get fast results.” He raised his eyebrows at Garcia and she rolled her eyes affectionately.

“You guys take that ‘don’t profile each other’ thing _really_ seriously, don’t you?” she shook her head and rested her elbows on the table, cradling her chin in one hand. “Well for one thing, there’s _no way_ we could get Emily to go all _in-your-face sex panther_ on JJ.”

Morgan was somewhat insulted on Emily’s behalf and moved to defend his friend. “I _know_ you’re not saying you think my girl doesn’t have what it takes.”

Garcia scoffed and waved one hand in front of her like she was brushing the comment aside. “Emily could seduce the skirt off a succubus if that’s what she wanted.” She assured dutifully, patting Morgan’s hand to further assuage any unintended transgression. “That’s not the issue. The issue is that Emily only starts out like that with people she’s not serious about and she’s already in _love_ with JJ, so we couldn’t trick her into it no matter how clever I am. Besides,” she reasoned. “Jayje knows that about her so even if we _could_ get Emily to quit doubting herself about this for ten seconds, JJ would have good reason to assume she’s just screwing around and neither of them wants that.”

“Which leaves us back where we started.” Derek pointed out a little glumly. Had Emily and JJ been anyone else, he’d have left well enough alone but they weren’t. They were Emily and JJ and they were part of his family and he’d do anything to see his family happy. Especially with everything they’d been through and all the horrific things they dealt with on a regular basis. They deserved to have happiness wherever they could find it and if it was with each other, all the better.

Garcia hummed her contemplative agreement and looked as if she were going to say something when the sound of a phone vibrating stopped her. For a split second, Morgan thought it might have been Giselle reneging on her demand for some ‘no-contact space’ but then an odd, almost metallic wheezing noise accompanied the rattling of the vibration and Garcia immediately pulled her large purse into her lap to rummage around its insides.

“It’s Reid.” She explained confidently, still moving things around in her purse on the quest for her phone. Pulling it out triumphantly, she unlocked the screen and looked over the new text message before frowning slightly and typing a response.

“Everything okay?” Morgan asked when she sighed in disappointment and set her phone on the table and her purse back onto the chair next to her.

“Yeah, Reid just backed out of tomorrow.”

“What’s tomorrow?” he murmured a thanks to the waiter who set a black billfold with the cheque inside down on the table and swatted Garcia’s hand away as she reached for it, picking it up himself and glancing at the paper inside disinterestedly.

“Derek,” the blonde started in a tone that indicated she was going to fight him about paying. He expected as much, even if he’d been the one who’d gotten there last, she would have fought him about paying anyways.

He tucked his bankcard into the billfold and handed it to the waiter, shrugging glibly. “You can get me next time,” he lied. It was a common argument with them when they were out together, but he wouldn’t object to her paying _just_ often enough that the promise of ‘next time’ was usually an effective way to end the friendly spat.

Penelope lifted her cup to drink the last of her tea and raised her eyebrows at him, indicating she knew his game and rolled her eyes when he offered an unapologetic smile and a wink in response. “Reid was supposed to come with us to the movies tomorrow.” She explained, letting the issue of the cheque go.

“You got Reid to go to the movies on a _Saturday_?” Morgan leaned back in his chair and stretched slightly, his body telling him he wasn’t going to want to eat again for a week while his mind was contemplating the likelihood of making himself sick by finishing what very little he had left.

“Well apparently not.” Garcia corrected. “He was supposed to come with me, JJ, and Emily to see that movie, Iceni?”

He shook his head to answer the indirect question on if he’d heard of the movie or not.

“It’s a period movie about a Celtic warrior queen kicking some serious invading Roman ass. You know how Boy Wonder can be about checking historical inconsistencies in movies _and_ it’s based on a true story, so he’d said he’d come even though it was going to be super crowded.” She lifted one shoulder helplessly. “One of his academic nerd buddies just got him a last minute seat at some cognitive science thing at George Mason tomorrow. I’d try to talk him out of it since he doesn’t come out with us enough, but…” she trailed off when Morgan nodded knowingly.

“Well hey,” he started optimistically. “Maybe this’ll work?” he leaned forward as he nodded enthusiastically about his own idea. “Yeah, you could have something ‘come up’ at the last minute, leaving JJ and Prentiss to watch the movie alone.”

“That _would_ be a fabulous idea,” Garcia agreed readily. “But it won’t work. Jayje has plans during the day and was just going to meet us there and Emily’s taking her car to the shop tomorrow to update all that Starfleet technology it uses—she’s carless until Sunday so I told her I’d pick her up.”

Morgan set about returning his card to his wallet as the bill made its way back onto the table and flipped through his money to see if he had enough to leave a paper tip. “Okay, well how about this,” he amended, weighing down several bills with his empty cup. “Ancient warrior queens sounds like a movie I could get into and Emily likes to sit in the very back while you have to fight JJ to get her any closer than the middle, right?”

Penelope nodded, a sly smile gracing her features as she caught on to his train of thought. “Right! So you and I can insist on someplace they’d never want to sit and that will leave them to get all cozy in the nosebleeds.”

Morgan nodded with a smile of his own and popped the last piece of meat off his plate into his mouth before standing. “It’ll be crowded enough on a Saturday that they probably won’t even realize to argue about it.”

Garcia tipped her head gratefully at him as he helped her into her jacket and looped her scarf around her neck again. “Perfect.” She said, scooping her purse up with one hand and hooking the other around Morgan’s arm as they made their way out of the restaurant. “And you’re _sure_ you’re not going to be pressed for time or anything?”

Derek shrugged as he pushed open the glass door to the parking lot, tugging Garcia slightly so she would go in front of him. Giselle wanted no-contact space so it would be safe to say that any plans he’d made with her would be canceled for the foreseeable future. “I got nothing but time right now, Baby Girl.” He promised as he walked her over to her car. “Just hit me up when you get home so I can get the details and I know you made it back okay.”

Penelope nodded and patted his arm before releasing it and unlocking her doors. “Okay, sweetness,” she said brightly by way of parting. “Try not to have  _too_ wild a night?” she grinned widely at him and got behind the wheel, the loud thump of a rock bass line permeating the air the second she turned the key.

Morgan shoved his hands in his pockets with a small smile and forced himself to move to his own car instead of watching her drive out of the parking lot.


	4. Chapter 4

JJ strolled leisurely through the crowded shopping complex towards the movie theatre, hands shoved deep into the pockets of her hooded sweater. She’d arrived earlier than she’d anticipated and didn’t expect anyone else to be there yet. It had been an unseasonably warm day, which had given away to a pleasantly cool night, and it seemed like a lot of people were taking advantage of the nice weekend weather. Humming quietly to herself, she found a suitable spot on a low cement wall caging in some decorative plants and sat down, pulling her phone out of her pocket to let everyone know where they could find her when they got there.

The response from Emily was quick: ‘ _Pen won’t answer coz she’s driving. I ran into her at the bookstore so we’ll be early too. Stopping for coffee first. Mocha extra shot with coconut milk?_ ’

JJ grinned and sent back ‘ _like you had to ask_ ’ before sticking her phone back into her sweater pocket and resigning herself to people watching while keeping an eye out for either of her friends’ cars. She was a little disappointed Reid wasn’t going to be joining them as they tried to drag the younger genius away from books and lectures as often as possible, but she couldn’t begrudge him canceling on their movie plans. He’d been so excited at the chance to meet one of the key speakers at that lecture that she didn’t have it in her to try and talk him out of it. They could go to the movies any old time and he had a tendency to stumble over his words and colour slightly when talking about the friend who had procured him a seat… that in and of itself was more than a good enough reason to assure him he wasn’t doing wrong by backing out of their plans.

And with Morgan coming in Reid’s stead, maybe she could finagle him and Garcia together in the theatre. It _was_ crowded enough to where that would probably be easy to do. She smiled to herself and nodded decisively, it was a good idea. She and Emily had often speculated on why those two wouldn’t just date already. Their most popular ideas were that they’d found out about the office pool and were punishing them, or the more likely theory that Derek had never been really serious about anyone and he was playing it way too safe. As far as JJ was concerned, that was the only logical explanation. She wasn’t as close to Morgan as Emily was but she had known him longer and while she couldn’t remember the exact day his physical attraction had become emotional, there had been a clear distinction.

The most confounding part was that both of them were well aware of their mutual attraction and that their flirtatious banter was grounded in some serious places. Penelope had tried to explain it to her once. That she knew she could be with Derek if she pushed the issue and she _wanted_ to, but she also knew he wasn’t much for being tied down in serious commitments and Garcia didn’t want to put either their friendship or them individually through that. JJ thought it was preposterous, honestly. They weren’t even dating and Morgan was more committed to Garcia than he’d ever been with anyone and JJ felt like she could (and should) prove her point by just saying as much to Morgan to get him to get his head out of his ass, but she understood wanting to keep things to yourself and do things on your own.

After all, it had been _her_ that frequently threatened to actually have that talk with Derek if Garcia ever spilled the feelings JJ had for Emily to her. Even just as recently as two days before she’d pulled the threat out at the bar when Penelope was getting too pushy. JJ felt that it wasn’t really a parallel situation for a lot of reasons, but the desired result was the same: to protect what they already had, to make sure that their friendship wouldn’t have to recover from a relationship that didn’t make it. JJ could appreciate that; she didn’t know what she’d do without Emily. She told Emily things that she’d only spoken to Penelope about nebulously and JJ knew that Emily allowed her to see a real vulnerability in her that she rarely showed anyone, let alone with any frequency. JJ liked to think that she wouldn’t give that up for anything either, but she knew that if she had the kind of certainty about Emily that Garcia had about Derek, she would throw caution to the wind—likely to her detriment—so maybe it was for the best.

She fished her phone out of her pocket with a mildly pitiful sigh as it chimed merrily and glanced at the message from Derek that simply said: _‘Taking a cab. May be late. Let everyone know and I’ll explain when I get there._ ’ JJ frowned at the text and was tempted to message him back to see if everything was okay, but even just reading words on a screen she could tell he was upset and needed a minute to cool down. If he’d wanted to talk about it right away, he would have messaged Emily since she was riding with Garcia. She responded simply that they’d wait for him and then decided to hold off on telling the others in case Penelope was inclined to pester Emily into calling him out of concern.

“Heyuh… excuse me,” a sheepish voice she didn’t recognize said, causing her to look up.

In front of her was a tall, lean man who looked as if he’d just recently gotten off of work. He was wearing business casual clothes with a fashionably distressed leather satchel slung over one shoulder and he was _gorgeous_. A mass of long, black, neatly tended dreadlocks were carefully pulled behind his head into a ponytail and he had the most well groomed goatee JJ had ever seen. His dark eyes were sincere as he gave her an apologetic smile, causing matching dimples to appear briefly on either side of his mouth. JJ returned the smile slightly and raised her eyebrows in a prompt for him to continue.

“Sorry,” he said, sounding genuine about it. “I don’t mean to bother you but,” he held up one hand that was holding a cellphone with a blank screen and wiggled it back and forth slightly. “My phone died and I was supposed to meet some friends ten minutes ago…” he looked around the plaza as if hoping to suddenly spot them. “Who still aren’t here, so if it’s not any trouble,”

JJ smiled warmly and unlocked her screen before holding her phone out. “Don’t worry about it.” She insisted, cutting him off politely.

 “I really appreciate it.” The man said, smiling again as he took the proffered device. JJ decided that he had the kind of smile that could make spring come early.

She watched him as he turned to the side to give himself some privacy without walking away with her phone or turning his back entirely to her. When the sleeves of his dress shirt were pulled downward by pressing JJ’s phone to his ear, she noticed a bracelet carefully secured around his wrist. It would be hard _not_ to notice it, honestly. It was incredibly garish and didn’t match itself; let alone what he was wearing. It was inexpertly woven in a chevron pattern with alternating bands of dark orange, aqua, and neon pink. It reminded her of the friendship bracelets she and her friends used to make for each other in junior high.

“Okay,” he was saying as he finished up his conversation. “I’m gonna be by those trees out front.” He laughed, a decidedly pleasant sound. “Well hurry your ass up then,” he instructed with a light shake of his head, ending the call and handing JJ back her phone, which she took with a smile. “Thanks.” He said; sitting near enough to her that afforded the option of continued conversation but far enough away that it wouldn’t be rude if she didn’t take him up on it.

“No problem…?” she looked at him expectantly, hoping he’d take the hint.

“Antoine,” he supplied and stuck his hand out.

“JJ,” she responded, shaking his hand with a smile and looking down at his wrist pointedly. “That’s an interesting bracelet.” While ‘interesting’ was putting it rather mildly, she was being sincere.

Antoine grinned as he took his hand back and rotated the bracelet slightly with his other hand. “Yeah, it’s pretty loud, isn’t it?” he agreed good-naturedly. “It doesn’t go with anything, but I wear it every day; to remind me why I do it.” That last part seemed to be added in an absentmindedly automatic way and JJ cocked her head to one side in question, wondering if she should outright ask since it seemed unintended.

He gave her a lopsided smile, “I’m an adolescent psychologist.” He started by way of explanation. “I mostly work with kids in the juvenile system. I just came from my weekend group, actually.” He held up his dead phone again. “So I didn’t get the chance to charge it.”

“One of the kids you work with made it?” JJ surmised, finding herself halfway to being charmed by this stranger already.

Antoine shrugged. “It’s a little more complicated than that,” he said with a shake of his head, though he didn’t seem uncomfortable that the question had been asked. “Not something you’d really talk about chilling outside a movie theatre on limited time.” He raised his eyebrows.“Definitely something you’d talk about over dinner sometime, though.”

“Oh that’s _good_.” JJ admired through a laugh.

“It’s only good if it works.” He modified with a grin. “Did it?”

JJ shook her head, amused. “Depends, is the bracelet thing a line or is there really something there?”

Antoine held up a hand, palm out like he was making an oath. “I swear it,” he promised. “But the set up was there, so…”

“That’s fair,” JJ acquiesced with a definite nod, making a decision. “Do you have a pen or something?” she glanced away while Antoine looked through his bag and caught sight of Garcia and Emily approaching. She waved them over and resisted both the urge to acknowledge the floating tug in her chest every time she saw Emily and the desire to move towards them to retrieve her coffee from the older woman who was nudging Garcia with her elbow and nodding her head interestedly towards Antoine.

“Here,” Antoine said drawing her attention back to him as he stood up and held out a small white card. The smile on his face was still genial but there was something about his gaze that was in the hue of curiosity but she couldn’t quite decipher fully.

JJ took the card and examined the front where ‘Antoine Nehemiah Waters PsyD’ was printed in embossed black letters along with an office address and several phone numbers.

“I wrote my cell on the back,” he explained. “That way there’s no pressure, right?”

JJ thought it might be impolite to point out how unlikely it was that he could pressure her even if he’d wanted to so she nodded gamely and slipped the business card into the front pocket of her jeans with a smile. She was about to say something more when a loud ‘Hey, Twan!’ sounded from several yards away, drawing both of their gazes. There was a group of five people in front of a nearby restaurant, one of them holding open the door and motioning for Antoine to join them.

“That’s them.” Antoine supplied unnecessarily, slipping his bag back over his shoulder and stepping away from JJ as she stood up. “It was nice meeting you, JJ; thanks again.” He said just as Emily and Garcia stopped near them. He gave them both a polite nod, flashed another dimpled grin and jogged over to meet his friends, disappearing into the restaurant.

“Who’s your new friend?” Emily teased, handing JJ a warm cardboard cup.

“Just a guy who borrowed my phone.” JJ replied flippantly. She felt a sudden knot of discomfort attempting to blossom painfully in her throat so she took a long drink of her coffee in an effort to force it down.

“He’s _cute_.” Emily said with approval, looking at her over the rim of her own cup with a slightly guarded expression that JJ wasn’t sure she could read—and that bothered her.

“ _Puppies_ are cute,” Garcia specified, shifting her weight from foot to foot as if she were still trying to catch a glimpse of him. “That guy’s smile was a religious experience. Does he have a brother? A _twin_ brother?”

JJ chuckled and though her features were schooled to remain amiable, she was profoundly desperate to change the subject but couldn’t come up with a good reason to do so without it sounding odd. Particularly because she wasn’t sure how to explain the cause for her discomfort succinctly to herself, let alone out loud to her friends. Luckily, there was no need for her to keep racking her brain about it. As happened so frequently that as far as JJ was concerned it was a set law of nature, Emily understood JJ’s needs without her having to really say or do anything. The brunette reached over and gently tugged on the shoulder of JJ’s hoodie several times to catch her focus, squeezing her upper arm gently in friendly reassurance as she dropped her hand back to her side.

“Is that my sweater?” Emily asked with a knowing grin, her voice clearly exposing that she was well aware of the answer.

JJ bit at her bottom lip and shoved her free hand into the pocket of the oversized grey hoodie, glancing down at the fading navy blue ‘Yale’ printed on the chest. It was true that she had a collection of Penelope and Emily’s clothes in various places in her house, just as she had clothes squirreled away at their places. During their infamous ‘girl’s nights’ they typically crashed at each other’s apartments and sometimes ended up leaving things behind. While she was _usually_ good with getting Garcia’s clothes back to her (except that one red cardigan that she had absolutely no intention of returning short of having her credit threatened), she and Emily were about the same build and they invariably ended up assimilating a lot of each other’s clothes into their wardrobes. Most often it was an unintended commandeering of tops or the odd pair of jeans, but the hoodie very obviously belonged to Emily and at any rate, JJ had very consciously decided to keep it.

“It _was_ your sweater.” JJ corrected with a grateful smile. “It’s too late now,” she pouted while looking at the older woman through lowered lashes, knowing that if she looked pathetic enough she’d get what she wanted with no argument. “It’s the most comfortable sweater I have; you _can’t_ take it back.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Emily snorted, draining the rest of her drink with a mirthful roll of her eyes indicating that she knew very well what JJ’s pout was about. “But I could have just gotten you your own.” She continued while needlessly invading JJ’s personal space as she moved past her to toss her empty cup into the stylish metal bin a few paces from where they were standing.

“No way,” JJ scoffed, mildly put off by the suggestion and shoving Emily playfully as she went by her again. “This one was already broken in.” She didn’t—couldn’t—say that while she’d been truthful about its comfort level, she had originally neglected to give it back because it had smelled strongly of rosemary, chamomile, and lavender—obviously picked up from the scent of Emily’s extraordinarily expensive shampoo. Even now, despite it having made more than a few trips through the laundry since she’d had it, JJ thought she could sometimes detect faint notes of the fragrance on the fabric. She was positive that any lingering aroma was psychosomatic at this point, which made the times she was _sure_ she smelled it all the worse somehow.

She and Emily had been regarding each other intently and JJ was abruptly overcome with the absurd fear that Emily had suddenly learnt to read minds and felt herself blush embarrassedly at the prospect. She averted her eyes under the pretense of taking another drink before pushing her hair out of the way by deliberately brushing her palm over her cheek to see if the warmth in her face was as noticeable as it felt.

“Where’s Morgan?” Emily asked, again sensing JJ’s need for a change in subject matter.

 Garcia, who had been watching JJ like she was trying not to giggle, looked around as if just noticing that he was nowhere in sight. “We’ve still got a little time.” She said after grabbing Emily’s arm to check the time on the brunette’s wristwatch.

JJ nodded and took another drink. “He text me earlier saying he might be late; said he had to take a cab and he’d explain when he got here.”

Emily mouthed ‘a cab?’ at Garcia who shrugged in response before looking around and pointing her mostly empty cup of tea towards the edge of the parking lot where a silver and red taxi had pulled up to the curb. Derek could be seen in the backseat, phone pressed to one ear and fiddling with the electronic pay machine attached to the headrest in front of him. “Speak of the handsome devil…”

Morgan waved to them distractedly as he got out of the cab and it drove away, making no movement to join them right away as he paced back and forth by the curb. They couldn’t hear what he was saying, but his body language was tight and his movements jerky—he was clearly upset. Garcia unconsciously shuffled forward a few steps with a frown on her face as they watched Morgan throw up a free hand quickly and rest it on his forehead briefly before he slid it back to hold onto the tense muscles of his neck. He shook his head several times and stopped his pacing abruptly, his back to them.

The three women watched him curiously as his free hand waved back and forth sharply through the air, conducting the angry words leaving his mouth that they couldn’t quite make out but could definitely hear the tone of. He turned around again and started stalking over to the little group; nearly stomping his feet in a manner that would have been adorably childlike if the look on his face hadn’t been so troubled.

“There’s _nothing_ to talk about, Giselle!” they could hear him say as he got closer. “Look, I don’t want to do this right now. I just want to have a good time with my friends and I’ll see you tomorrow to give you the bill, okay?” he didn’t wait for an answer before ending the call and shoving his phone into his pocket, wiping a hand over his face and letting out a loud puff of air. “Sorry I’m late,” Morgan mumbled, trying to shake off some of the attitude he’d arrived with. “But _someone_ slashed my tires last night.”

Emily let out an angry “ _What_?” at the same time JJ let out an incredulous one and Penelope was pulling out her phone and asking, “what was her last name again?”

Morgan let out an overwhelmed chuckle and held up his hands shaking his head. “Whoa, slow down.” He started, an actual smile tugging at his lips. “Giselle didn’t do anything.” He continued to try to diffuse the situation, focusing his attention on JJ who seemed to be the most open to hearing about why they shouldn’t storm off in search of his not-quite-girlfriend. “I had-uh,” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Some plans fell through and probably I didn’t handle it the best so she was understandably upset and had been talking to her friends and one of _them_ did it without telling her until after the fact which was when she called me. I’d just thought some kids in the neighbourhood did it.”

“Hence the cab.” JJ surmised with an amused nod.

“You got it.” Derek sighed. “She’s gonna pay for the tow and the tires tomorrow.”

“Damn right she is.” Emily mumbled tersely under her breath causing JJ to press a fist to her mouth and clear her throat to cover a giggle.

“So what’s _the friend’s_ name?” Garcia rephrased impatiently, her thumb hovering over her phone screen expectantly.

Derek sighed again, this time sounding more like a laugh as he plucked Penelope’s phone from her hand and dropped it into the unzipped maw of the purse at her elbow. “It’s _fine_.” He insisted, slinging his arm casually over Garcia’s shoulders in an attempt to rid the look of annoyed exasperation on her face. “ _Fine_.” He repeated at Emily who had one eyebrow raised and looked about ten seconds away from offering to help Garcia.

He turned his gaze back towards JJ who so often was the reasonable one out of the three women in situations like this. The blonde just smirked and shook her head, flicking her palm outward to let him know he was on his own this time.

“Let’s just watch this movie,” Morgan laughed, tugging Garcia towards the ticket line. “You and Prentiss stay away from each other the rest of the night.” He informed the hacker, dropping his arm away from her. “I don’t need you two conspiring.”

“Okay,” Penelope grumbled, “but you’re absolutely sucking the fun right out of my night.”

“I’ll make it up to you.” He promised, pushing past her so he could be the first one at the ticket counter when there was a free spot, which instigated a bout of good-natured squabbling over paying for tickets.

“I was thinking,” JJ said quietly behind them and drawing Emily’s attention. She rolled her eyes at the look on Emily’s face that left an unvoiced but playful ‘ _uh-oh, here we go_ ’ hanging between them. “ _Hush_.” JJ commanded with a snicker. “It’s only the day after opening and it’s already so crowded… so what if we ‘trick’ Pen and Morgan into some secluded spot away from us?”

Emily nodded in immediate agreement, thinking back to her conversation with Derek a few days before. He’d have a fit if he found out she’d had a hand in trying to angle him and Garcia together after that discussion but that was only _if_ he found out. “Yeah,” Emily murmured back, stepping to the front of the queue with JJ as Morgan and Garcia raced each other to the payment window at a blithe speed walk; Garcia beat him only by virtue of bumping Morgan lightly out of the way with her hip. “That’s a perfect idea.”

“Those are the only kind I have.” JJ confirmed with a smug smile. She watched with some amusement as Morgan and Garcia moved to stop by the glass entrance doors, bickering about concessions. Garcia was apparently going to make Morgan get his own popcorn despite him saying he only wanted a little of hers because the last two times that had happened, he ended up scarfing down nearly all of it himself. “Just look at that,” JJ continued, absentmindedly gripping Emily’s hand lightly and pulling her forward compliantly to the ticket counter. “He already seems a million times less stressed.”

Emily hummed in acknowledgement. “Garcia has that effect on people,” she said distractedly, immediately shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket the second they got to the counter and JJ let her go. Once in out of sight safety, she balled her hands into fists to try and rid them of the impulsive energy running through her that to want to fit JJ’s palm against hers again. “Especially Morgan.”

JJ grinned. “Yeah, he’s been done for for _ages_ ; he’s just fighting it.” She turned her attentions to the box office worker. “Two for Iceni at eight-thirty,” JJ requested, patting her pockets down in an effort to remember which one she’d stuck her wallet in.

“Sorry,” the baby-faced employee started before she could get too far. “We just sold out.”

JJ sighed with a frown and looked at Emily who shrugged.

“Well at least for sure they’ll have to sit together now.” She offered, causing a smile to blossom on JJ’s face again as she nodded.

“That’s an excellent point.”

“Those are the only kind I have.” Emily retorted archly.

JJ rolled her eyes. “We’d better pick something else or Penny’ll just call the whole thing quits.” While that was true, and JJ really didn’t want to give up this opportunity to metaphorically shove her friends together, she also didn’t exactly hate the idea of spending time with Emily. Sure they saw each other plenty outside work, but they hadn’t spent much downtime together without at least one other person there since Emily had dated Miranda, and that ended two months ago.

“Hmm, they’re still playing Rage.” Emily said, talking mostly to herself as she looked at the digital display on the wall inside the ticket office. JJ swooned internally at the incredibly French way Emily pronounced the name of the movie. They’d casually discussed the idea of going to see it when the import had first been released over a month previous, but getting swept up in a whirlwind of heavy cases had put the thought on the backburner and halted any ability to make plans.

It had seemed like a movie that had been right up their alley, too. She and Emily often made a game of watching horror or thriller movies and race each other on who could call the ‘surprise’ plot-twist that inevitably showed up before the twist was actually revealed. When Morgan was in a social mood, they could get him to play, but Penelope adamantly abstained so this was truly a perfect setup. As a bonus, Emily had chronic difficulty remembering when to speak English every time they watched something that was entirely in another language she spoke. And JJ did so love hearing Emily speak French despite her own skills with the language being negligible to the point of nonexistent.

“Two for Rage, nine o’clock.” JJ amended to the clerk before turning to her friend. “You think they’ll figure us out?”

“How? We haven’t done anything.” Emily smiled impishly as if suddenly remembering something. “This movie starts and ends later so don’t you think it’d be a better idea for Garcia not to wait around for me and she can take Morgan back while _I_ can just catch a cab?”

“I like the way you think, Agent Prentiss.” JJ smirked, thanking the ticket agent and handing Emily one of the stubs. “But you’re not taking a cab, I’ll drive you.”

“It’s not that far, Jayje.” Emily insisted, looking around for where Morgan and Garcia had wandered off to and spotting them through the glass doors near the concession counter, Garcia having apparently won her case for separate popcorns. “It’s closer for me from here than how far Morgan had to go.”

“You act like I don’t already know that.” JJ replied nonchalantly, entering the theatre lobby when Emily held the door open. “Or that I was even asking you a question in the first place.” She smiled warmly at the brunette. “It’s not like it’s way out of my way and _this_ way, I can make you buy me a late dinner after.”

Emily laughed and shook her head. “How can I refuse such a generous offer?”

“You can’t; me and my offers are always irresistible” JJ deadpanned, tossing her hair back dramatically. “And it’s useless to fight it.”

Emily rolled her eyes and swallowed the words in her mouth that wanted her to agree out loud in a way that couldn’t remotely be played off as joking. “You guys go without us.” She said instead as they approached Morgan and Garcia who were mid-conversation.

“What happened?” Morgan asked with a frown, exchanging a glance with Garcia.

“Sold out.” JJ supplied with a shrug. “You guys must have bought the last tickets.”

“They might refund us.” Penelope said decisively. “We can pick something else.”

JJ looked at Emily with an expression silently saying, ‘ _what did I_ just _say?_ ’

Emily’s eyebrows rose and her chin angled slightly upwards: ‘ _yes, Jennifer, you’re very perceptive._ ’

“It’s fine, Pen.” JJ asserted, wrinkling her nose at Emily and nudging her elbow against the older woman. “We already got tickets to see Rage anyway.”

Penelope screwed up her face in disgust. “That terrible movie you guys were talking about forever ago?”

“It’s probably not that bad. It got very good reviews, which is hard to do with any supernatural thriller let alone one imported from overseas with subtitles.” Emily countered. She and JJ were no strangers to their proclivity for this unusual game they played causing them to watch some real bottom of the barrel cinema, but every once in a while there would be a hidden gem and at least this one promised to try. Either way, it was _fun_ , which was the whole point.

“Sweetie,” Garcia said firmly. “I love you, but there’s something wrong with you.” Leveling a stern look at JJ who was chuckling, “ _both_ of you.” She shook her head in willful confusion. “I really can’t understand how you two can look at the stuff we do, _you_ do, all day and want to unwind by watching junk like _that_.”

“It’s never even that plausible,” Emily defended with a laugh. “If they start making those, I’m sure we’ll quit.”

“Besides,” JJ chimed in enthusiastically. “There’s werewolves in this one, so it doesn’t count.”

Penelope snorted derisively but she was smiling. This was working out even better than she and Derek originally planned. JJ was notoriously unshakeable when it came to disturbing movies on par with Reid _unless_ there was anything supernatural involved. A secret both she and Emily had sworn everything short of a blood oath to keep to themselves, but if the movie was good enough, JJ was going to be an adorable mess for the rest of the night and seeing as how she was going to be otherwise occupied, that would leave Emily to keep her grounded in reality. “Okay, well you guys go fill up the tank on nightmare fuel while me and Adonis here do something _normal_ people like to do. What time does yours get out?”

“It doesn’t even start until nine.” Emily replied, looking briefly at her watch even though she knew full well how long it was going to take. She just needed to be casual so there’d be no cause for suspicion that she and JJ were up to something. “It’s over half an hour longer than yours too so why don’t you just give Morgan a ride back when Iceni is over?” she asked as if the idea had just occurred to her while she was looking at her watch. “JJ said she’d take me home as long as I put up with her long enough to pay tribute or something.”

JJ scoffed and slapped Emily’s shoulder lightly, which only made her laugh. “I am _delightful_ company.”

“Of _course_ you are.” Emily teased with a nod before turning her attention back to Garcia who was grinning at Morgan, seemingly with some private joke between them. “You guys don’t mind the change of plans, do you?”

Penelope shook her head cheerfully and waved towards the mostly occupied scattering of tables and chairs in front of a small arcade to one side of the lobby. “If Morgan _and_ half dressed Celtic warriors with rippling muscles can’t put a song in my heart, then I’m a lost cause.” She said dramatically, turning to head toward their designated theatre. “Have fun, my lovelies!” she said over her shoulder. “Make sure you text when you get home.”

“Come on,” JJ demanded brightly while pulling Emily by the arm, forcing her attention away from watching Garcia and Morgan’s retreating backs. “We’ve got forty-five minutes to wait and I want to spend every second of it kicking your ass at Time Crisis.”

Emily smiled and let herself be towed towards the dim anteroom lit from within by various flashing game machines. “Good luck with _that_.” She goaded while reaching for her wallet in preparation to feed the coin machine. It was no secret that JJ was the best shot on the team and coupled with her competitive streak, Emily was well aware that the odds were stacked rather heavily against her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to go down without a fight and some well constructed shit-talking.

There was a tiny, terribly hopeful voice in the back of her mind that wanted her to dwell on how date-like this suddenly seemed so Emily did the only reasonable thing she could do. She promptly stuffed that voice in a mental box, sealed it shut, and threw it as far away from her conscious thought as she could, repeating to herself that it just seemed that way because she hadn’t spent time alone with JJ in months. It didn’t mean anything.


	5. Chapter 5

“For the _last_ _time_ , Emily, it’s _not_ irrational to be scared of werewolves!” JJ shouted earnestly, her slightly panicked voice seeming to be that much louder in the confines of her car. The white knuckled grip she had on the steering wheel tightened impossibly further and while Emily didn’t laugh _exactly_ , JJ could tell the loud sniff coming from the passengers seat was the brunette’s attempt to stave off that very action. She pulled into a parking spot in the garage she had been slowly cruising through and shut the engine off.

“I don’t know how many times we have to go through this,” Emily said through a chuckle. “But we’ll keep doing it as long as it takes, okay? That stuff isn’t real, JJ.”

“You don’t know everything, Miss Skeptic.” JJ said sourly, starting to lean over to check the gun she had in her glove compartment only to be halted by the _entirely_ too amused look on Emily’s face. “Not _one_ word, Prentiss.” she hissed, scowling when Emily let out a bark of laughter. She shoved Emily towards the passengers side window before getting out of her car herself. JJ ran a nervous hand through her hair and stood with her back to the plain cement wall in front of the car, eyes darting around to note where her closest exits were (which she told herself she was doing because of occupational habit).

It was well after eleven and while the mostly full lot could attest that that wasn’t terribly late for a Saturday night, the garage was silent except for the low hum of the sickly yellow-white fluorescent tube lights overhead and the quiet passing of cars on the street above them. JJ knew that this outcome had been a possibility long before they’d even been seated in the theatre. She didn’t really know what it was about supernatural monsters, but they just _got_ to her. Part of her blamed growing up in a tiny community in Allegheny County where the intensity of most people’s religious beliefs were directly proportional to how willing they were to believe and enforce that problems could be caused by demons and the other part of her blamed having an older brother who would delight in concocting new and fascinating (and _plausible_ ) reasons why that creak in the attic was the angry spirit of a possessed killer from the 1800s murdered by an angry mob and not raccoons. There _was_ actually a reason, after all, that she was afraid of the woods.

JJ wasn’t a woman prone to hysterics and since her late teens at most, she could have counted on one hand the number of times she automatically jumped to a supernatural conclusion for something initially inexplicable that frightened her. There was something about movies that just stuck her right back in that susceptible mindset. It was a safe gamble a lot of the time. If the plot elements weren’t believable enough, she’d be fine. If the special effects were too unrealistic or too laughable, there weren’t many problems. Given the production quality of most supernaturally themed films, the only movies she really preceded with caution on were ones dealing with hauntings and possession (it was amazing what you could do on no budget when your monster was supposed to be invisible). Past experience dictated that werewolves should have been no big deal but this goddamn movie they’d spent the last two hours engrossed in had been a near masterpiece. Which was _great_ from an entertainment standpoint and JJ had really loved the movie, but it also meant she was scared, irrationally paranoid, and ready to fight anyone who tried to insinuate she was either of those things.

She hadn’t even really gotten to participate in their little plot-twist game because she’d spent less time trying to figure out twists and more time trying to mentally deconstruct the mythology the movie built up to verify that it wouldn’t work in the real world. JJ had spent the whole movie alternating between cutting off the circulation in Emily’s upper arm under the death grip she had on it, burying her face in the brunette’s shoulder, or trying not to whimper out loud in the worst kind of frustration when Emily ducked her head to whisper some plot-twist theory in her ear in French because she forgot she was supposed to be speaking English. Really JJ only had herself to blame, but damned if she was going to do that.

The door slamming when Emily finally pulled herself out of the car caused JJ to jump and her right hand to shoot automatically to her hip where her gun normally sat. She glared at the brunette who had a broad smile on her face and was casually strolling over to meet her. “ _I hate you so much_.” JJ seethed, shrugging her shoulders roughly when Emily put an arm around her and while Emily dropped her arm, she was still laughing, completely unperturbed by the brush off.

“JJ, I’ve seen you less shaken at crime scenes with the _same_ level of blood and torture that we just saw. And _that_ stuff actually happened.” Emily reminded her. “But you always get like this with these movies.”

“Yes,” JJ agreed testily, setting a quick pace as they made their way out of the parking garage. “But a vengeful spirit who’s impossible to please has never been our unsub, has it, Emily? We can _catch_ those guys we go after. Do _you_ know how to catch a werewolf, Emily? Because _I_ don’t. Anyway, silver bullets are impractical as shit.” She bumped heavily and purposely into Emily’s side when the brunette started laughing again. “ _Think_ about that for a second, Em. Shape shifting, undead, immortal unsubs.” She shivered. “ _Fuck_.” JJ glared at Emily who had briefly pulled her into a side hug, probably to distract her from the look of pure glee at her pain. “Shut-up, Emily,” she grumbled. “Whatever you’re going to say, shut-up.” They both knew there was no real anger behind the words, mostly because JJ was legitimately anxious and Emily felt safe.

JJ knew she was being beyond childish; she didn’t care. Every shadow looked like it held dangerous secrets she didn’t have the knowledge to fight and every time she closed her eyes, even to blink, terrifying images from the movie would flash through her mind: blood and claws and bone and screaming. As annoyed as she was at Emily’s penchant for pestering her about her (admittedly) ridiculous fears every time the opportunity presented itself, JJ still trusted her enough to let herself be as irrationally scared as she was going to be around Emily. For as much teasing as Emily heaped on her, JJ could always count on the brunette being observably extra vigilant without being patronizing and the good-natured tormenting never approached the boundary of anything but lighthearted. Which was honestly more than she could say for Garcia sometimes, but the hacker got a pass because she didn’t mean anything malicious either and poor Garcia frequently ended up on the receiving end of JJ’s panicked ‘I’m home alone and too freaked out to go to sleep so now you have to come over and stay the night talk to me until the world makes sense’ calls.

Somewhere in the distance a dog howled and while it didn’t sound anything like a wolf, an unpleasant shiver rippled up JJ’s spine anyway. “Are you _kidding_ me?” she groaned, immediately clutching Emily’s arm both hands. “When have you _ever_ heard a dog howl _anywhere_ near Crystal City?” JJ frowned before mumbling, “I bet it’s not even a dog. Over two hundred thousand people in a major metropolitan area and we’re going to get mauled to death by David Kessler.”

Emily gently pat the hand JJ had gripped tightly around her upper arm and while her face was nothing but amused, the action wasn’t condescending in the slightest, which caused the blonde to relax a bit, relaxing her hold but keeping herself pressed into Emily’s side. “Come on, Jennifer,” she said in a soothing tone. “You _know_ that can’t happen in real life. Let’s just focus on how absurd the idea is instead?”

“That’s what they’d _want_ us to think, Em!” JJ insisted. “That’s how those things work, you know?” she retightened her grip on the older woman’s arm. “ _Anyone_ could be some kind of… monster in waiting!”

“Anyone?” Emily asked interestedly. She really didn’t mean to give JJ’s unrealistic anxieties a stage, but experience said that for at least the next eight hours, JJ was going to be jumpy and illogical no matter what happened. And it wasn’t Emily’s fault if JJ was violently adorable when she was spinning off on tangents about the plausibility of the existence of murderous shape shifters or unappeasable spirits. Wrong though it may have been, Emily was perfectly agreeable to taking any potential karmic loss for her part in lending fodder to her friend’s childish fears whenever she was able.

“Anyone.” JJ confirmed. “Have you seen Rossi after a night out with the team?”

“ _Rossi_?” Emily laughed. She tried very desperately not to focus on the fact that the hand JJ had wrapped around her upper arm had slid down to her forearm just above her wrist, or that the blonde was still anchoring herself to her side with her other hand near her elbow.

“I swear, sometimes I think the only reason he has a mansion is to escape angry villagers.” She muttered, pulling Emily across the street quickly before the light changed. “Hotch is _obviously_ some kind of demon tamer.” She continued thoughtfully, calming down more as they made their way into a crowded restaurant and reluctantly letting go of Emily now that they were in a more secure space. “Morgan is a textbook satyr or incubus or something. Garcia is some kind of…” she waved a hand in the air trying to help her thoughts along. “Benevolent techno-witch, and if you try to tell me Spence isn’t _one_ bad day from creating his own monster, we’re going to fight.”

Emily laughed and raised her eyebrows in question. “Is that right?” she asked lightly. “So what am I then?”

JJ felt her face flush and her mouth opened slightly to offer an answer even though she was still trying to figure out something to say that didn’t sound as sexual as the word _vampire_ did echoing around in her head with all the terrible (amazing) tangential thoughts that brought with it.

“How many?” a cheerful voice nearby said, drawing JJ’s grateful attention.

“Two,” she told the hostess quickly, shoving her hands into the pockets of _her_ hoodie and following the stocky woman through the crowded restaurant.

“Oh shit.” Emily whispered suddenly next to her while they were bottlenecked near the bar.

JJ turned to look at the brunette in concern over her tone only to find Emily ducking her head and trying to look inconspicuous. “Em?” JJ asked, compelled to keep her voice down even though the restaurant was plenty loud enough for no one to overhear them.

Emily cringed, her eyes darting towards the grouping of high tables situated near the highly polished bar counter. “Near the bar,” she said. “Second table from the left.”

JJ’s gaze drifted over to where Emily had indicated, landing on a rather rambunctious group occupying two tables pushed together but she could see immediately what (or rather _who_ ) Emily was talking about. Facing their direction but clearly having not seen them was a tall, graceful looking woman with a well-tamed mop of light brown curls nodding intently at whatever the man across from her was saying. JJ averted her gaze quickly as if resting it too long on the woman would alert her to their presence and smiled tightly at the hostess as she gestured to a table not nearly far enough away from where she’d just been looking.

“What’s Miranda doing here?” JJ asked lowly. It wasn’t like they were off the beaten path and Emily’s ex _did_ work in the area, but it was midnight on a Saturday and she lived clear over by Annapolis.

“No idea.” Emily replied, sliding into the seat across from JJ. “I try to talk to her as little as possible, honestly.”

“We only just sat down,” JJ pointed out. “We can go someplace else.”

Emily sighed and shook her head, reaching for one of the menus that had been left for them. “We’re already here,” she pointed out, glancing over her options. “And this is the only place that makes those horrific fried banana peanut butter sundaes you like. Besides, it’s not like we’re at one of Mother’s functions so I don’t have to carry on a conversation even if she does see us.”

Emily often cited Miranda’s very vocal distaste for her career as to why she ended things with the program specialist, but it was a bit more complicated than that. Garcia and JJ were really the only ones who knew why their relationship was doomed fairly soon after it had started. Emily really felt she should have known better given her _mother_ had been the one to introduce them. Elizabeth Prentiss had had exactly zero reaction to her daughter’s sexuality until she was twenty at which point the Ambassador felt utterly at ease using Emily’s _proclivities_ as a way to court politicians she was trying to gain favour from who had daughters or nieces of a similar ‘alternative lifestyle.’

Once Emily had very spectacularly embarrassed her mother and besmirched the family name by not only willfully staying away from the political arena but openly detesting it, she was hopeful her mother would stop trying to pair her off in a way that would benefit the Ambassador’s position in some way. While it certainly didn’t stop, Emily wasn’t as subjected to her mother’s ill-advised attempts at matchmaking nearly as often. So when it _did_ happen, she dutifully took out whatever poor woman had been conned into the ordeal and if they didn’t already have an understanding of what was going on, she spelled it out for them. She’d try to have a good time (and sometimes she had a _very_ good time) and usually they’d part ways amicably after a few dates only to ever cross paths at whatever dinner or fundraiser her mother got it set in her mind that Emily simply had to make an appearance at.

That had been the plan with Miranda as well. Elizabeth had been especially enthusiastic about her, which should have been Emily’s first and only clue. Not only was Miranda from ‘good stock,’ being the favourite niece of some muckety-muck in the French National Assembly that Elizabeth had had a long political relationship with, but like Emily, Miranda had chosen an ‘unconventional’ career path rather than the one her family had meticulously tried to set her on. Emily thought that maybe that would have given them more in common than what she usually had with the women her mother tried to set her up with, and at first, it sort of had.

Miranda seemed like a nice enough person on the surface but her chronically haughty attitude and casual disdain for any class outside ‘upper’ were exactly the kind of things Emily was trying to avoid in people associated with that social strata where unchecked privilege was rampant and encouraged. Miranda thought that Emily’s passion for what she did at the BAU was ‘cute’ but ‘clearly’ something she couldn’t be planning on doing indefinitely (Miranda herself readily admitted that she only had a federal job because it was ‘something neat to do’). Emily had held her tongue for the most part. With her job being what it was, they didn’t get to see each other as regularly as Miranda would have liked (which suited Emily fine) but once the lanky brunette had started harping on not just her job, but on her _family_ , Emily had stopped putting effort into the relationship until that final straw.

Emily honestly would have been totally fine with just a physical arrangement. So long as she didn’t engage Miranda in conversations that made her want to argue with the woman (the subjects of which were many and varied), she enjoyed Miranda’s company just fine. But after nearly four months and that final argument, Emily had done the merciful thing and put the relationship out of its misery. There had been too many topics that were veritable minefields to navigate (for her anyway, as Miranda was quite adept at willful ignorance), there was too little they actually had in common to the point that Emily very quickly found herself nearly relieved when a case interrupt their plans. Miranda had made it clear that she was fine with and even enthusiastic about the state of their relationship, her only qualms being how little time they actually spent together. For Emily, there was no way she was ever going to let herself get locked into a relationship where all they truly had in common was the number of digits in the balance of their chequing accounts and ability to give each other orgasms.

Once it became clear that Miranda was going to keep pressing for some kind of reconciliation after she broke it off, Emily had let communication taper off to nothing outside of necessity in the hopes that the other woman’s feelings would atrophy but she hadn’t quite had the opportunity to fully test the results yet. It might have been a tad cold, but she didn’t know what else she was supposed to do. The place was crowded and she’d had a fabulous night so far, there was no reason to believe that it couldn’t continue that way. She wasn’t going to let a hypothetical encounter stress her out. Not when there was more than enough reason to keep her thoughts away from Miranda right in front of her.

“Hey Jay,” Emily said lowly, leaning across the table conspiratorially and drawing the blonde’s eyes up from her menu.

“What?” JJ asked cautiously, knowing enough by the mirth on Emily’s face that she had every right to by wary.

“They have a new drink here you should try…” she trailed off and looked down at her menu again like she was verifying the ingredients before lifting her head to grin at her friend. “Yeah, it’s great. It’s called a wolf bite and it’s made with Jacob’s Ghost.”

It was easy to laugh in the relative safety of a well-lit restaurant with people talking jovially all around them so JJ did, despite trying to fix her face into a glower. “Go ahead and be a jerk if you want,” she scoffed, flicking her index and thumb against Emily’s hand as a way to encourage her to sit back again. “But _I’m_ the one who’s driving and if you keep that up, I’m just going home and you can catch a cab from there _after_ you’ve consecrated every room _and_ I’ve fallen asleep.”

“Joke’s on you, Jareau.” Emily rolled her eyes and huffed out a snicker as she sat back. “They don’t give excommunicated Catholics blessing powers.” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Depending on who you ask, I’m actually probably more likely to let demons _in_ your house than keep them out.”

“I’m okay with taking my chances on that one.” JJ said, avoiding eye contact by not looking up from her menu again. There was a fine line JJ felt like she was constantly balancing on when flirting with Emily. Sometimes she didn’t know when her actual feelings would swim to the surface to colour her tone or her gaze until the words were already leaving her mouth. Even the most ridiculous things could suddenly be heavy with way more than she intended (or wanted) to let out.

“Better the devil you know?” Emily grinned.

“Better the devil I know protect me from the ones I don’t, if she knows what’s good for her.” JJ elaborated, absentmindedly using her pinky to toy with the corner of her lower lip. She didn’t quite feel like she was being stared at but JJ was compelled to lift her eyes anyway, unsurprised when she met Emily’s gaze smiling slightly.

Something passed between them then, just a small something. It wasn’t anything that JJ hadn’t felt before, but there was something different in the way Emily’s face softened that made her stomach flip pleasantly. Whatever it was, it was gone in an instant as an effervescent waiter came by to take their orders. The only way JJ knew for sure she had even seen something was the fact that Emily’s expression closed up and JJ frowned, wondering if she’d done something to make the other woman uncomfortable. She was about to inquire about it after the waiter left them with a charming smile and the promise to be right back with their drinks when an excited voice with a melodic lilt called out:

“ _Emmy_!”

Both JJ and Emily cringed at the nickname and turned to see Miranda picking her way towards their table, obviously on her way back from the restrooms at the other end of the restaurant. JJ watched with no small amount of fascination as Emily’s whole demeanor changed as she stood up smoothly to press her cheeks quickly to either side of taller woman’s.

“Hello, Andi.” Emily greeted, and though she’d used Miranda’s nickname and was smiling, there was nothing casual in Emily’s voice. Absolutely nothing untoward either, but as far as JJ was concerned, Emily had managed to say ‘ _Good evening, Miss Bernard_ ’through tone alone. Emily did have an incredible knack for that kind of thing and the blonde frequently found herself wondering if it was just part of Emily’s personality or a trick she picked up while learning different languages.

JJ had often seen the switchover from Emily to Agent Prentiss, but she could reconcile those two aspects of her friend together because they fit easily into what JJ knew of her. It was the switch from Emily to Ambassador Prentiss’ Daughter that was always a little surreal. For as much as she hated everything to do with it, JJ thought Emily would have made one hell of a politician.

“Oh Emmy, I _thought_ that was you!” Miranda enthused either not catching or outright ignoring Emily’s tone. She glanced over at JJ only when Emily gracefully—with almost unnaturally precise movements—took her seat again. “And Jennifer as well!”

Miranda wasn’t as skilled at the undertone game as Emily was and JJ couldn’t have missed the ‘ _I see Emily’s still slumming_ ’ if she’d tried (and she had).

“Please, Miranda, just JJ.” She corrected automatically, her own persona slipping easily into the friendly but aloof front she used at work. She hadn’t seen this woman in over two months and already she could feel irritation bubbling just barely under the surface. It wasn’t just the continued use of her full name, which JJ tolerated with any regularity from only a very tiny pool of people (of which Miranda certainly was not a member), but given what JJ knew of her, there was literally nothing that endeared Miranda to her. Apparently her brain decided that was way more than enough to not mask the dislike she had for the svelte brunette.

“Of course.” Miranda said dismissively, flashing what JJ guessed was supposed to be a winsome smile at her before turning her attention to Emily. “I haven’t seen you in a while,” she continued cheerfully enough. “I’ve been wanting…” she looked briefly over at JJ. “To apologize for things…you look good.” JJ had always felt that Miranda was looking down at everyone, even when meeting their gaze levelly (and she hadn’t been wrong), but whatever urbane pretentiousness tightened her features loosened a little and instead she looked almost _nervous_.

“You do too.” Emily replied, her voice still holding an over enunciated quality to it, but she seemed sincere. “I’m sorry I missed you at Mother’s fundraiser last week.”

JJ was sure she heard ‘ _Yes, I still work with the BAU and I’m glad we had a case in Idaho then_ ’ though she wasn’t sure at all if Emily was glad that she’d escaped going to one of the Ambassador’s biannual banquets that were held in DC or if she was glad she’d missed seeing Miranda, or if it was some combination between the two. JJ suddenly felt herself fill with the overwhelming compulsion to very curtly tell Miranda to get lost and frowned internally at the notion. Her automatic thought was that the irritation was grounded in what she knew of Miranda—how the woman thought of Emily’s job and Emily’s friends—but that wasn’t quite it, she just couldn’t put her finger on it. Whatever it was, it was incredibly uncomfortable and she resisted the urge to fidget to try and expel some of the tenseness starting to coil within her.

Miranda nodded a little distractedly as if she’d caught the first part of Emily’s implied meaning but was still trying to work out the second. “My uncle would have loved to see you again. He left me with wishes to pass along his greetings and a box of Gauloises brunes, which of course made me think of you…”

JJ didn’t know what it was Miranda had gotten, but she watched with mild interest as the woman’s head ducked slightly, her face flushing as she tucked a group of large ringlets behind one ear when they fell forward. Curiosity overcoming her, JJ quickly moved her gaze to Emily and was surprised to see that her detached Daughter of Ambassador Prentiss façade had gone and Emily had a sort of nostalgic warmth to her eyes, the hint of a small but earnestly alluring smile on her face. When Emily pulled her bottom lip between her teeth briefly and gave Miranda a subtle appraisal, a painful jolt of energy burst hotly within JJ and she could finally put a real name to the earlier irritation. She was _jealous_.

JJ wasn’t a jealous person by nature; not really anyway, but especially not with people she wasn’t even dating. It wasn’t like she’d never seen Emily with anyone else romantically before. Hell, it wasn’t as if she’d never seen Emily with Miranda before either; but there was something bout right now that was just… _oh shit_ , she thought as the epiphany crashed into her. She got it now. She was so stupid. They’d sent Garcia and Morgan off together and it really hadn’t registered with JJ that at some point after that, her subconscious had decided she and Emily were on a _date_ , but it had. She was jealous because there was _her date_ making prurient doe-eyes at someone who _wasn’t her_. Alarm bells were going off in her head and they all sounded like her own voice yelling: ‘ _get out of here right now before you fuck this up’_ in a shrill panic. The sudden urge to get away for a minute flooded her so effectively that she stood up abruptly; fast enough that had she not been fighting off the anxiety of feeling like she was intruding on something coupled with the fear that she was going to do or say something irrevocable, she might have actually been embarrassed.

As it was, the second JJ started rising out of her seat, fast though she’d been, Emily was already looking at her with concern clouding her features. JJ shook her head tightly, too abashed and distressed with herself to even look the brunette in the eye. She barely heard herself mumble an excuse about forgetting to check on something with Garcia and that she’d be right back before moving briskly towards the exit, already pulling her phone out of her pocket and pulling up Penelope’s number.

Once a few paces away from the door, she turned to make sure Emily wasn’t going to come after her to see what was wrong and satisfied that she was going to be left alone, JJ moved further down the sidewalk, trying to remind herself to take even breaths while pressing the call button. Leaning against the side of the building, JJ pressed a palm over her eyes and anxiously repeated ‘pick up’ into the phone as it rang.

“Goddess R Us,” Garcia chirped happily. “Supreme deity of multiple pantheons speaking.”

“Penny, I screwed up.” JJ rushed out, ignoring her friend’s typically flamboyant greeting. “I screwed this up _so_ badand you have to help me fix this because I don’t know how and honestly I can’t believe I could be so _stupid_ ,”

“JJ,” Garcia cut in worriedly. “What happened, gumdrop? I promise I’ll help you but you have to calm down and actually tell me what it is you need help with.” JJ sounded like she typically did after some supernatural movie got to her and though Penelope had been anticipating the Freak Out Call that usually happened in those cases, she was sure that wasn’t going to come until much later since JJ was supposed to still be out with Emily. A not so small part of her had hoped that JJ wouldn’t have had cause to call her at all that night. “Did something bad happen with Emily?”

“No!” JJ insisted quickly. “Yes, no,” she groaned in frustration with her own anxiety and squeezed her eyes shut behind her hand. “I don’t know.”  She took a deep breath and moved her hand from her now opened eyes to her mouth, hoping to stem the stream of words that wanted to pour forth in a panicked babble.

“I need more than that to go on, sweetie.” Garcia prodded with gentle concern.

JJ dropped her hand away from her face, unable to push away the feeling that she was screaming internally with dread. “I think we’reon _a date_.” She finally ground out, the hand holding her phone jerking away from her ear quickly as her friend let out the loudest squeal JJ had ever heard (and she’d been to her niece’s fifth birthday party).

It only made JJ want to freak out more and she hurried to squash the misunderstanding.

“No no no, Pen.” She jumped in, pressing her phone back to her ear once the joyous yelling subsided. “ _I_ think we’re on a date.” JJ repeated with reemphasis, pressing the knuckles of her free hand to her cheek to make nervously worrying her lower lip with her fingers easier.

“You’ve lost me, Jayje.” Garcia said a little breathlessly. “Take some deep breaths and tell me what’s going on.”

JJ nodded even though Garcia couldn’t see her and did as she was told, trying to gather her racing thoughts into something linear. “I couldn’t let it just be two friends hanging out, could I?” she said, exasperation starting to edge into the clear tone of panic that had been in her voice. “It’s just with the movie and going to dinner and before our waiter came she, at least I think… God, I didn’t even realize I thought it was a date, Penny! Not until Miranda showed up and I had to get out of there before I said or did something _incredibly_ stupid.”

“Wait, _Miranda_?” JJ could hear not just the frown but also the distaste in Garcia’s voice. “When did she deign the human realm good enough to descend from Mount Olympus and mix with commoners?”

JJ threw up her free hand away from her face in an exaggerated shrug before dropping it heavily to her side. “I don’t know! But I _do_ know that when Emily was checking her out, I was jealous that she was looking at Bambi Moneybags like that and not me!”

Penelope wanted to laugh at the use of the nickname she’d inadvertently (but _very_ delightedly) gotten to stick to Miranda, but the distress in JJ’s voice kept her from doing so. “Okay, well if Emily was eyeballing her, are you sure you’re not just freaking out because they might get back together?” as unlikely as she felt that scenario was, she wanted to hand JJ any reason she could think of to lower her anxiety and the note of disappointed concern in her own voice wasn’t entirely on JJ’s behalf.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” JJ replied immediately, picking up on Garcia’s discomfort. “Em loves herself too much to keep putting up with that. She loves _you especially_ too much to keep putting up with that.” She shook her head. “You and I both know that the only appeal leftover is physical, and no one with eyes can fault her for that.”

Penelope nodded on her end of the line and let out a sigh of relief. “Right, you’re right.” She paused for a moment, latching onto the specific wording JJ had used. Jealous. That was a new development as far as Garcia knew (and she knew everything). JJ and Emily had never distanced themselves from each other when they were dating someone and as a result, Garcia had been privy to JJ experiencing a lot of different emotions when Emily had a girlfriend. Primarily: longing for the brunette, frustration that her feelings didn’t want to fade away, worry that Emily wouldn’t be treated well enough, concern for Emily’s happiness, guilt when she was feeling those things and was in a relationship herself—but jealousy was new. No wonder JJ was so off-kilter. “You’re sure this was _actual_ jealousy?”

JJ sucked in a sharp breath, feeling like her lungs were refusing to fill all the way despite the fact that she’d been standing still since Penelope had answered the phone. “This was… committed relationship level jealousy.” She confirmed dejectedly with a wince. “This hasn’t happened before. I’ve definitely stepped in it this time.” She lifted her gaze towards the clouded night sky, murky and purple with light pollution. “What a disaster.”

“What’s so terrible?” Garcia soothed diplomatically, mentally angling out the situation as rapidly as she could. “Since _you_ thought it was a date without conscious thought, that means the whole night would have been dateish, right?” she knew JJ would argue with her so she didn’t wait for the other blonde to answer. “Of course it was. I know you, and silver tongued though you are, you couldn’t talk yourself into thinking you’re on a date when you’re not. Stab in the dark here, kitten, but I’ll bet half the contents of my hard drive that Emily thinks so too; at the very least, in the same subconscious way or there wouldn’t be anything for you to confuse.”

JJ scowled. “Don’t say things like that,” she pleaded. “I’m in pain.” She was about to elaborate when an important thought floated into her mind. “Oh shit, Pen.”

“What?” Garcia prodded curiously, smiling slightly at the tone in her friend’s voice. JJ was still obviously brimming with nervousness (and Garcia expected some embarrassment as well), but there was a note of hope in her voice that hadn’t been there before.

JJ took another steadying breath and let it out noisily, not sure if she was truly on to something or just confusing herself. “Just before Miranda came over there was…and, maybe I’m making this up, but there was this _something_ , right?” she shook her head again upon realizing that she sounded like she wanted Penelope to agree with her. Which wasn’t terribly far from the truth, but Garcia hadn’t been there. “I just mean that there was something in the way Em was looking at me and it was _different_ , it was like…” JJ swallowed hard, her eyes going wide as fresh adrenaline coursed through her. “Oh shit, Pen. _We’re on a date_.

What do I do? She hasn’t been with anyone since she broke up with Miranda, and we haven’t been alone together since before then so what if this is just…convenient? This could just be circumstantial, couldn’t it? I could be anyone suitable. What if it doesn’t _mean_ anything? I can’t deal with meaninglessness, Penelope. Not with her.”

“Jayje, stop.” Garcia commanded firmly. Letting JJ just air her anxieties was typically the best course of action in Garcia’s opinion because JJ could usually talk some sense into herself and really she just needed a sounding board and someone to keep her focused, but Garcia had heard quite enough to know that that wasn’t going to be the case this time. “You’re being silly, and you know it. Emily _loves_ you and you _know_ there’s no such thing as ‘meaningless’ to her in _any_ respect once she lets someone in.” She, of course, meant that Emily was _in_ love with her, but knew that JJ would take it differently even before the sentence was fully out of her mouth. Still, Garcia decided now was not the time to press on the reality of the brunette’s affections. That was something JJ apparently needed to hear in no uncertain terms from Emily herself before she would believe it.

JJ sighed heavily and nodded, running a hand through her hair. “Honestly, that feels almost _worse_ for some reason. I think…” she took a tremulous breath. “Just for a second, if we hadn’t been interrupted, I felt like something might have,” JJ interrupted herself to clear her throat, welling up with sudden resolve that seemed to come out of nowhere. “I’m going to talk to her.” She held the phone away from her head as her friend squealed again.

“I’m so _proud_ of you!” Garcia gushed. “This is going to be _great_! What are you going to say? What changed your mind?” she managed to just barely stop herself from saying that she couldn’t wait to tell Morgan.

JJ swallowed dryly, her heart still hammering violently in her chest. “Whatever I saw, it might not have been anything serious…but I’m pretty sure I didn’t imagine it. Even, even if she doesn’t, if she’s not…” she cringed; she didn’t even want to say it out loud. “Even if we’re not on the same page…emotionally, there _was_ something to talk about.” She plowed forward before Garcia could try to deafen her again. “Don’t get excited, Pen. I’m not going to tell her. She _definitely_ doesn’t need to know I’m in love with her; this could still be nothing, wishful thinking, you know? But if it’s not, even if it just,” she shrugged helplessly. “Fizzles out in the long run, at least it’s something, right?”

“ _Fizzles_?” Garcia scoffed and hoped how hard she was rolling her eyes was conveyed over the connection. “JJ, _please_. You’re one of the _most_ confident people I know but when it comes to Emily? You’re worse than an awkward teenager with their first real crush.” She ignored the indignant snort on the other end of the line. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s senselessly adorable, but you’re _killing_ me here, angel. You chase _serial killers_ with less hesitation.”

“I can _shoot_ serial killers. They’re less intimidating.” JJ huffed. “And _they_ at least make more sense than,” she waved her hand vaguely, hoping to pull out a word that could summarize her emotional tumult. “ _This_. Cut me some slack.”

“Have I not been doing that for the last two years?”

“No, you really haven’t.” JJ laughed lightly. “Look, while I was mortifying myself, I said I was coming out here to check on something with you and I need to have something to say when I go back because we both know Emily’s going to ask and I don’t want to tell her I’ve been out here for ten minutes hyperventilating. _So,_ tell me how _your_ date went tonight.”

“My…?” Garcia asked curiously before whining out Jennifer’s name moodily.

JJ wrinkled her nose distastefully. “Don’t call me that. It makes me feel like we’re fighting.”

“We are.” Penelope confirmed.

“Since when?”

“Since right now.”

“Come on though, if Emily and I are _technically_ on a date, there’s absolutely no ‘technically’ about you and Morgan. Did he go over after? Have I been interrupting? Please tell me I’m interrupting.”

“All you’re interrupting is a Munsters marathon and I’m _not_ having this conversation with you, Jennifer; we’re talking about _you_.”

“Did you put your head on his shoulder during the movie?” JJ nearly singsonged, her nervousness ebbing away with the subject change and the residual feelings of determination that came with having a plan of action. “Did you even watch the movie or were you too busy making everyone near you disgustingly charmed with all the nicknames you have for each other? Did you guys finally admit you’ve been married for years and decide to make it official?” she laughed at the annoyed grumbling in her ear. “Can I be the maid of honour? Where are you going to honeymoon? Doesn’t matter, you’ll never see the outside of the bedroom.”

“JJ,” Garcia interrupted sternly. “You are my best and dearest friend and you are my sister and I love you, but I will not hesitate to drop your FICO score to three hundred _and_ reset your credit history if you don’t stop talking.”

“Do you want me to shut up because nothing happened?” JJ asked, unfazed. She’d learnt over the years how to tell when Garcia was being serious about threats to her credit and she still had a little room to push her friend’s buttons. “Or do you want me to shut up because something happened?”

“How did we start talking about me anyways?” Penelope asked. “Don’t liaise me.” Her tone was light, but scolding and JJ was optimistic that even though Garcia didn’t want to talk about how it went with Morgan, it must have gone well—even if it seemed nothing _had_ actually happened since JJ was sure she would have heard about it approximately five seconds later.

JJ felt that if someone could just get Derek to listen to sense long enough to face up to the fact that he and Penelope had been emotionally committed to each other for years, then it would stand to follow he’d quit being such an obstinate ass and both he and Garcia could just let things happen. But if there was one thing that everyone on the team had in common, it was an impressive amount of willful stubbornness (and still, some more than others).

Something that sounded like an entire wooden dining set being tossed out of a fifth floor window and into a metal dumpster rang out violently from somewhere further down the side street and JJ yelped loudly, pressing her hand to her chest. The cloud of nervousness over the sudden realization of her situation had eclipsed her nervousness over getting ripped to shreds by a pissed off shape shifter but now JJ found herself acutely aware of how exposed she was leaning weaponless against the side of a building with a wide alley to one side and a busy street to the other.

“Has anybody died from mysterious animal attacks in Arlington in recent history?” JJ wasn’t sure if she was whispering loudly or not because her heart had started thundering unpleasantly in her ears and she was flooded with the urge to move. “ _I’m serious_ .” She griped hotly at the tinny version of Penelope’s giggle.

“I know you are.” Garcia assured, clearing her throat to try to get her voice to sound more serious and get her amusement under control. “I _promise_ that the closest possible wolves to you are the Washington ones at the Iceplex. You’re _fine_ , Jayje.”

JJ’s gaze swept back and forth on high alert, unwilling to peel herself off the side of the building and leave her back exposed for the short journey back into the restaurant while she still had her attentions divided by being on the phone. “How late are you going to be up?”

“Sorry, buttercup,” Garcia said while shaking her head, her apologetic tone nothing but genuine. “I can’t come over tonight.” As entertaining as JJ’s short-lived but sincere upsets were, they happened so rarely that Garcia was always more than happy to comfort her friend—even if the request (or the fear itself) was fatuous. Since she and Emily were the only ones privy to JJ’s Secret Shame, it usually fell to Garcia to stay over JJ’s as the other blonde was generally too embarrassed to ask Emily because Emily was always the one who actually saw most of JJ’s little freak-outs since Penelope had _no_ intention of playing their horrible game. JJ’s quiet, half-swallowed squeak at something else that had startled her quickly refocused Garcia’s attention.

“Please, Pen?”

“You know I can never say no to you when you sound like that, but tomorrow’s Sunday.” She reminded her gently.

“Right,” JJ frowned at her own forgetfulness. “Your nerd thing with Spence.”

Garcia rolled her eyes. She wasn’t sure _she’d_ call it a ‘nerd thing’ but there was really no other accurate way to describe the brunch she had with Reid every Sunday where they either hung out at a bistro to talk about Doctor Who or marathoned it in Garcia’s living room. “But you can always call me,” she said, trying to sound encouraging while wondering how cruel it would be to leave creepy wolf noises as a voicemail message.

“Yeah, okay.” JJ replied a little distractedly as a group of boisterously drunks gamboled past her. She tried to mentally catalogue what they were wearing and any suspicious movements. “Thanks, I’m sure I will.”

“And hey,” Garcia said brightly (and more than a little suggestively), “I’m sure that after you talk to Emily, you won’t have a reason to take her back to DC and therefore no reason to call me.”

JJ rolled her eyes but the corners of her mouth twitched upwards as the spontaneous confidence from earlier started to edge back in along with shades of annoyance with herself that she’d left Miranda more or less alone with Emily. “Maybe. _Maybe_.” She amended in an attempt to stop her mind from gleefully flinging itself into ‘best possible outcome’ scenarios.

“Well let me know what happens but I hope I don’t hear from you until you show up late for work on Monday.”

“Good _bye_ , Penelope.”

Garcia laughed. “Love you too, sugarplum. Bestest Best Friend out”

JJ stuck her phone back in her pocket, her thumb tapping purposelessly against the screen to keep it from locking as she speed-walked back into the restaurant, trying not to look like she was visually scanning for danger. Once inside the safety of the waiting area, JJ let go of her phone and gave the hostess a weak smile as she walked past, not stopping to take the deep breaths she was using to fuel her prayers that her resoluteness wouldn’t fail her.


	6. Chapter 6

_Emily lingered in the foyer of Rossi’s expansive mansion while collecting her jacket, squinting through the warm yellow glow of the overhead light beyond the open door at the retreating form of her girlfriend who was strolling towards the profiler’s car while speaking rapid French into her cellphone. Emily sucked in a deep steadying breath and held it a moment, trying to collect herself. She avoided bringing Miranda around the whole team at once with any frequency because it took such a toll on her. Both in her efforts to soften the other woman’s less than pleasing personality quirks and the fact that Emily just couldn’t completely be herself around Miranda. She was used to the latter being par for the course with just about everyone, but it took a special something out of her when it was around her team, her family._

_She smiled automatically when JJ ambled into the foyer, a mostly empty glass of chilled wine still in her hand and her eyes lit up with the ghost of the belly laugh she’d been sharing with the others still further in the house. “You really leaving already?” she asked, leaning backwards slightly to see where Rossi was before setting her sweating glass down on one of the decorative tables._

_Emily nodded. “Andi’s got early morning meetings so it’s either take her back to my place now so she has time to prep, or stay later and have to stay at her place.”_

_JJ wrinkled her nose and shrugged her understanding. “Yeah, you’d better leave then and do us all the favour.”_

_“What’s **that** supposed to mean?” Emily asked with a faked affront, raising an eyebrow as she shrugged on her jacket._

_“Come **on** , Emily.” JJ teased, rolling her eyes. “You’re a total pain in the ass on anything less than four hours of sleep and any time you stay at Bambi’s, we all have to hear about her loud upstairs neighbours and how you couldn’t sleep worth a damn.” She leveled a pointed gaze at her friend when Emily looked like she was about to protest. “Plus I don’t want to have to beat you down for the coffee pot tomorrow.” She jerked a thumb behind her. “I already have to fight Spence enough as it is.”_

_“Fair,” Emily laughed, shaking her head. “That’s fair.” She ignored JJ’s whine of protest as she grabbed the blonde’s wine and drained the rest of its contents before thrusting the empty glass back into her hands. “You’re buying my silence for putting your glass on Rossi’s imported rosewood.”_

_JJ narrowed her gaze playfully and huffed. “ **Fine** , if you want to be a jerk. I’m gonna go hang out with people who appreciate me.” She stuck out her tongue petulantly and then grinned, waving casually as she made her way back into the house, holding up her glass and muttering ‘it was in my hand the whole time’ to Rossi as she passed by him._

_“Do I want to know?” Rossi chuckled as he came to a stop near the younger profiler._

_Emily shrugged and smiled. “Thanks for having us over,” whatever she was going to say next was cut off by Miranda’s dulcet ‘are you coming Emmy?’ from near the top of the driveway. Emily’s nigh unnoticeable posture stiffening at the nickname wasn’t muted enough to escape Rossi’s attention and he cleared his throat gently, drawing her attention back towards him._

_“Do you mind if I ask you something?” he wondered; only meeting her gaze briefly so she didn’t feel put on the spot._

_“Sure,” Emily replied, flipping her hair out of the collar of her jacket and sticking her hands in the various pockets to make sure her wallet and keys were where she’d left them._

_Rossi swirled the negligible amount of scotch in the tumbler in his hand and directed the first half of his question into the glass. “Are things going well?” he let the pause stretch between them for a few seconds before elaborating though it was clear she knew what he was talking about. “With Miranda, I mean.”_

_She gave him a tight smile. “Why wouldn’t they be?”_

_“You know I trust your judgment, Emily; and I don’t want to overstep…” he said seriously, before tilting his glass towards the open door where they could just make out Miranda’s features thrown into sharp definition by the light of her phone as she was texting. “But **really**?”_

_Emily rolled her eyes and brushed off his mildly confused expression with a shake of her head. “Rossi…” she trailed off with a not-so-stern warning in her exasperated tone._

_Rossi held up one hand indicating he got the message. “I’m just saying I’ve been married three times; I know a little about these things.”_

_“_ _Tenere a freno la lingua,” she laughed in only half-feigned horror. “We’re **definitely** not getting married.”_

_He chuckled and shrugged casually. “No, maybe not.” He didn’t continue but he knew she understood the look on his face; that he could see the relationship wasn’t really making Emily happy._

_“Thanks.” Emily said, her expression softening with her tone, letting him know she’d understood his meaning. She offered him a brief but sincere smile before heading down the walkway and unlocking her car, opening the passenger’s side door for Miranda who kissed her with a grin before slipping into her seat. Taking another deep breath and casting a brief gaze at the dark sky overhead, Emily went around to the other side of the car, ignoring the fleeting wish that she could go back inside before getting in and starting the engine._

_Emily kept a stopwatch in her head whenever she was around Miranda lately. Once her girlfriend started talking, the timer would count up to how long it took for the program specialist to start nitpicking at Emily’s life. She didn’t know why she was so optimistic that she was going to break the five-minute mark since she’d started keeping track she hadn’t ever hit it._

_“I rather like David.” Miranda was saying (Emily had honestly tuned her out for the opening of what she presumed was supposed to be a conversation since it was clear her attention wasn’t required). “It was nice of him to invite me as well.”_

_Emily hummed absentmindedly and turned onto GW Parkway._

_“I find it a little odd that he chooses to have such relaxed get-togethers with your whole unit though, don’t you?”_

_Emily glanced at the clock on the display screen on the dash. “Why odd?”_

_Miranda shrugged. “He’s a man of certain reputations,”_

_Emily held in the snort of laughter that threatened to escape and force her to explain why that was a poor (or excellent) choice of words._

_“And I can understand why he’d want some of them around, and you all work together of course, but if there’s no **reason** to gather like that, I just find it a bit…off-putting is all.”_

_“Three and a half minutes.” Emily murmured. “We were **so** close.”_

_“Speak up baby, you know I can’t understand you when you mumble.”_

_Emily kept the distasteful expression off her face at the very Elizabeth Prentiss-like tone to Miranda’s voice coupled with the term of endearment. “Off-putting is an…interesting turn of phrase.” She said instead._

_Miranda scoffed. “Don’t say it like **that** , Emmy, you know what I mean.”_

_Emily did, more or less, which was really the problem but she couldn’t seem to stop herself from saying, “humour me.”_

_Miranda sighed. “It’s just that…well, obviously **you** make sense. You’re a Prentiss and an invaluable resource.”_

_Emily gripped the steering wheel more tightly._

_“And even your boss who came by earlier, Aaron? I know he worked with your mother and even on his own, he makes sense too.”_

_“So what’s wrong with everyone else?” Emily couldn’t stop the offended tone from creeping into her voice._

_“Don’t put words in my mouth, Emily, honestly. There’s nothing **wrong** with them, they’re just…they’re just not the right caliber for our crowd.”_

_“ **Our** crowd?”_

_Emily could hear the frustrated eye roll in Miranda’s voice. “You know very well what I mean.”_

_“Unfortunately.” She muttered under her breath._

_“It’s not at they’re bad people. I mean, I could see potential with Spencer. He’s clearly got a lot going for him. A bit awkward maybe, but no more so than some of the boosters mon oncle is friends with and at least **he’s** young, handsome, and charming.”_

_“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled you think so.”_

_“Naturally. Remind me to get him Doctor Zerrin’s number, I think he could do a lot more.” Miranda replied, either ignoring or not picking up on the profiler’s tone; Emily could never be sure which it was with her. “So him, I definitely understand—for grooming purposes, of course.”_

_“Of course,” Emily agreed flatly._

_“But the others…”_

_Emily clenched her jaw for a moment. “Go on.”_

_“Emmy,” Miranda started, her tone already slightly pleading. ”I don’t want you to get mad because I know she’s one of your best friends…”_

_Emily sighed tiredly. “Spit it out, Andi.”_

_“I just don’t want you to get upset! You’re so touchy sometimes.”_

_Emily rolled her eyes and shrugged a shoulder. She had a gut feeling that this was going to turn out to be more than just one of their semi-usual Arguments and as such, she could have stopped it right then since all she really wanted was to go home and fool around halfway into some mindless movie on TV until she passed out but she had a strange, almost maladjusted compulsion to keep this conversation going. She was genuinely fascinated with the amount of willfulness and mental gymnastics involved in Miranda’s ignorance. “I guess I’ll just have to do my best then.” She said wryly._

_Miranda let out a short hum that could have been a noise of agreement and Emily bit the inside of her bottom lip to keep from letting out a sardonic chuckle. “I know you insist that everyone you work with is very capable, but they mostly stand alright on their own merit without that endorsement, you know?”_

_Emily let out a noise that must have been one of encouragement because Miranda continued._

_“Your boss was a well respected prosecutor and top of his field in many respects and I **know** he went to a liberal arts school, but at least it was a **private** school.”_

_Emily let out a heavy breath of air that could have been a laugh._

_“Spencer is obviously very intelligent and it’s nice that he’s found this to hold his attentions for a while and your friend Derek went to Northwestern which is impressive especially given his circumstances,”_

_“ **Circumstances**?”_

_“I know you know what I’m trying to say; I don’t understand why you’re always repeating me like that.”_

_“Evidentially because I’m unconcerned about self-afflicted ulcers.” Emily groused under her breath. “I just like everything to be as clear as possible.” She said more loudly after registering the vexed look Miranda was shooting her about her ‘mumbling habit.’_

_“You would think someone who learnt six languages before the age of twenty and spent nearly all their life in such cultured environments would enunciate better.” Miranda teased with no small amount of fondness in her tone._

_Emily resisted the urge to shrug her off irritatedly when she felt the other woman’s fingers brush across her face to tuck some of her hair behind her ear. It was times like this Emily had no earthly idea why she put up with Miranda. She supposed that the infrequency with which they actually saw each other alone tended towards making her forget, forgive, or diminish a lot of the things they butted heads about. Maybe absence didn’t make the heart grow fonder, but stupider._

_“It’s okay,” Miranda continued earnestly as if Emily had apologized. “It’s rather endearing in a funny sort of way. But as I was saying, even Jennifer has her own merits.”_

_“What does that even mean?” Emily asked perturbedly. “ **JJ** is hands down one of the hardest working people on the team and an incredibly valuable member the same as any of us.”_

_Miranda rolled her eyes. “Of **course** she is, no one is saying she isn’t. It’s just, what’s her big claim to fame? She shoots better than the rest of you?” she scoffed. “Did she learn that from taking pop shots at tin cans on the ol’ fence post behind the barn growing up?”_

_It was clear from her tone that it had been meant as a joke, but Emily wasn’t laughing._

_“Baby, don’t be like that.” Miranda chastised gently. “I’m only kidding. It’s very noble how defensive you get about your coworkers, but it’s a **compliment** for goodness sake. I only meant to say that Jennifer managed to rise above her station and that’s very admirable.”_

_“Are you serious right now?” Emily retorted with rising ire. “‘ **Rise above her station’**? You make it sound like Medieval Europe. We’re FBI Agents, Andi, not vassals.”_

_“My **point** , Emily, if I could get there,”_

_“By all means.”_

_“My point is that everyone stands on their own fairly well.”_

_“Everyone except…” Emily fed, noticing a glaring omission in Miranda’s criticisms._

_“See? You **do** understand where I’m coming from!”_

_Emily only just barely managed to contain a derisive snort._

_“What’s her name? Honestly I don’t understand why you all insist on using surnames like they’re your given names, it’s terribly isolating, don’t you think?”_

_Emily shrugged and decided not to start an entirely different argument based on the fact that ‘ **their** crowd’ was one of the most purposely insular groups society had to offer. “Garcia.” She offered, internally bristling at the idea of Miranda calling Penelope by her first name._

_“Yes, that’s right, Garcia. She’s so out of place, isn’t she?”_

_“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”_

_“She didn’t even finish college, Emily; at least even Jennifer did that!”_

_“She taught herself enough practical coding to get put on a watch list that was directly responsible for getting her into the FBI in the first place,” Emily defended hotly. “She’s **amazing** at what she does and we’d fall apart without her in more ways than one. What on earth would she need a two-hundred thousand dollar piece of paper to tell her as much for?”_

_“I’m only saying that if she wants to be a-an,” she gesticulated vaguely while trying to find the right words. “An eccentric, uneducated, common **hacker** , then I suppose that’s her prerogative, but she could do better. **Be** better. **You** could do better and you know th-”_

_“Ta **gueule**!” Emily all but shouted, casting an angry glare at her (she was now **quite** certain soon to be ex) girlfriend. “You know, I’ve put up with a **lot** of shit from you the last several months and I thought maybe it was only because we don’t see each other very much so I was just over exaggerating issues because when things are good, Andi? Things are pretty damn good, but **this**? This is fucking ridiculous and I refuse to sit idly by while you ridicule my family and their effectiveness at jobs you can’t even comprehend but refuse to take seriously anyway!”_

_Miranda huffed and crossed her arms. “Don’t be so melodramatic, Emily, I’m not ridiculing anyone. And your **family**?”_

_“You know damn well I’m not being facetious. I would, and **have** , put my life on the line for any one of them and they for me. So yes, Miranda, my **family**. And of **course** you’re not belittling them! Everyone’s fine and respectable as long as they meet your arbitrary standards of what those things **really** are, is that’s what it is?”_

_“You’re being ridiculous and defensive and you know I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”_

_“No, Andi, I’m not. And I know you ‘can’t talk to me when I’m like this’ because it means if we want to move past it, **I’m** the one who has to drop the issue and I’m sick of it. You can say whatever you want about me or how you feel about my job, but you leave them out of it. I’m so sick of your bullshit elitist attitude.”_

_“My **bullshit elitist attitude** , as you put it, isn’t any different than the attitudes **you** were raised with, Emily.” Miranda pointed out protectively._

_“And yet somehow, in spite of that, I managed to come out of the ordeal with a modicum of compassion.”_

_“You think I don’t have any **compassion**?! Ça me fait chier! You know very well that just last year I **personally** donated over,”_

_Emily cut her off by laughing outright. “ **That’s** what I’m talking about! You think that compassion and empathy and worth can be measured in dollars and titles and connections. I’m sick of all of that. I’ve been trying to get **away** from all that my whole life.” She shook her head ruefully. “I honestly thought you would have understood, but I was wrong.”_

_Miranda sobered at the tone in Emily’s voice and she turned away from her to look out of the window for a few quiet moments. “Look, I really don’t want to fight, Emmy.” She said quietly, trying to ease the tension._

_“Neither do I.”_

_“Then let’s not, okay? I’m not used to, to **being down in the trenches** , as it were.” She frowned at Emily’s eye roll. “You’re getting too upset and I hate it when we fight. Just help me understand.”_

_“I’ve been **trying** to.”_

_“Maybe I just didn’t realize how much things got to you. See, we’ve upset each other so much that neither of us even noticed you’ve gone right by Georgetown.”_

_Emily shook her head. “We’re not going to my place, I’m taking you home.”_

_“Emily,” she pleaded. “Don’t be like this.”_

_“That’s the thing, Miranda, there’s no other way I **can** be and until you can figure out how to **listen** to people instead of just hearing what they’re saying, we don’t have anything more to talk about with each other.”_

Emily was listening to Miranda; listening to her shy, fumbling attempts at apologizing and itemizing the realizations she’d made in the two months since they’d split up—she was listening but couldn’t keep her mind from simultaneously replying the night she’d broken up with the other woman. Part of her wanted to believe Miranda was currently being sincere. After all, Miranda was anything but shy or hesitant in any aspect of her life, which made Emily inclined to believe that her apologizing-without-specifics tactic was genuine. But Emily wasn’t stupid either. She and Miranda were the same age and one didn’t unlearn so many years of that kind of thinking in seventy days or less. 

Emily knew that it was a case of ‘there but for the grace of God, go I’ since she attributed her rather critical views on what she’d been raised with almost entirely on her father’s absence and mother’s neglect. JJ and Garcia both believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Emily would have turned out her ‘fabulous self’ regardless of her upbringing but there was a reason why so many other people from Old Money regarded her as unusual even when they had a favourable opinion of her. The only real difference Emily saw between herself and Miranda in regards to developing attitudes was that her exceedingly large family were very earnestly involved in her life. Emily could have just as easily turned out the same way if circumstances were different and it was for that reason that she didn’t feel comfortable writing Miranda off as a person entirely. She _certainly_ had no intention of getting back together with the freckled brunette regardless of how sincere she was being, but it might not be so terrible to try to maintain a friendship.

“I realize I was out of line on a lot of things and I just…” Miranda was saying. “I just can’t stand the thought that you might hate me.”

Startled back into full attention, Emily blinked at the taller woman in confusion before sighing. “Andi, you know I don’t _hate_ you, it’s just that you can be so dismissive and…” she searched the other woman’s face trying to come up with something that didn’t sound as harsh as the words floating through her mind.

“ _Obnoxious_?” Miranda provided with a hesitant smile.

Emily’s laugh was relieved and she shook her head amusedly. “Yeah, obnoxious.” She was sure her ex hadn’t changed drastically in such a short time, particularly given the laden greeting she’d used with JJ, but as unusual as it was for Miranda to be shy or reticent, it was equally noteworthy if she ever applied a negative label to herself so there had been at least _some_ sincerity in her apologies. Emily felt she’d be willing to put her on at least a probationary level of friendship to see if the change of heart stick and improve.

“What do you think, Emmy?” Miranda stuck out her hand casually but the hopeful note in her voice was genuine. “Can we try this friend thing?”

Emily smiled and took the proffered hand to shake it gently. “We can try.” Miranda’s eyes lit with her responding smile and they shook. It didn’t escape Emily’s notice that the other woman trailed her fingers across her palm as they unclasped their hands. “You know it’s going to be more than just an unclear apology to _me_ though, right?” Emily reminded her seriously. She didn’t want Miranda to think she was off the hook that easily. 

Miranda nodded seriously. “There’s a lot to talk about of course,” she agreed. “And I suppose we’ll see what happens from there, won’t we?”

“I suppose we will.” 

Miranda smiled, the nervousness that had been resonating throughout her body language fading slightly and making the action more genuine. “Why don’t you come and join us?” She inclined her head towards the tables she and her group had been occupying. “Let me buy you a drink at least. There’s plenty of room and there’s no interruption, it’s just some friends from work.”

Emily was about to voice the fact that Miranda had assumed that _she_ wasn’t the one interrupting but pushed it away immediately. The only thing Miranda was interrupting was her minds increasing ease at settling comfortably into wishful thinking territory. Still, she shook her head. In another set of circumstances she may have taken her up on the offer, but she definitely wasn’t going to leave JJ alone in her post-supernatural thriller mindset. She’d be fretting over the blonde’s state of mind until she was sure JJ either had Garcia on the phone or at her house. Emily was about to offer a half-sincere ‘maybe some other time’ when she noticed JJ entering the restaurant again, her body language hyper alert and her expression a strange mixture of determination and distress as she reached the glass doors.

Miranda watched Emily carefully as the profiler frowned a bit. She was a great deal of things but unobservant wasn’t on that list. She could note the second Emily’s eyes landed on her blonde friend because the way Emily’s whole being relaxed slightly as if she’d finally been allowed to take a breath after holding it for ages had not escaped her attentions. Nor had the immediate look of concern that coloured the profiler’s features, copying almost exactly the expression from when JJ had unceremoniously darted out of the building.

Miranda had known within the first five minutes of being around Emily and Jennifer at the same time that they were attracted to each other. She had never been worried about being cheated on while she and Emily were together. Not only was that wildly out of Emily’s character, as clear as the seriousness of their attraction was to Miranda, it didn’t seem to be that clear between them. For whatever reason, they chose to dance around each other and for a few months that had worked out very nicely to her advantage. She was sure that whatever awful things Emily thought about her (even if true) had been aired to her two blonde coworkers and Miranda was positive Jennifer would have used that as an opportunity to express her attraction to Emily because that’s what _she_ would have done; but watching at Emily look at JJ made it apparent that still hadn’t happened.

Which meant that that could work out in Miranda’s favour again. She knew she and Emily were over romantically and while it still stung a bit, she was fine with that. But being friends with an unattached ex when you were still attracted to one another had benefits all its own, and she could live with that. For now. “Jennifer is more than welcome as well, of course.” She said, pulling Emily’s gaze back towards her.

Emily smiled briefly and shook her head slightly. As adorable as JJ’s nonsensical anxieties were, they were real and if she didn’t express them, she’d never be able to unwind. Emily wasn’t going to make the blonde tax herself by pretending to not be on high alert while around a collection of strangers headed by the questionably reformed ex of one her best friends. “ _JJ_ ’s had kind of a rough day.” She said by way of explanation and correction. “Another time, maybe?”

Miranda nodded and smiled, laying a fleeting touch on Emily’s shoulder. “Another time definitely.”

Emily watched her ex make her way through the restaurant traffic back to her table, not bothering to chastise herself when her eyes wandered to the sway of the other brunette’s hips momentarily before swinging her gaze forward to watch as JJ pulled out her chair and sat down with nervous movements. Any other thoughts in her head dimmed as she looked at her friend with worry. JJ had been making her way back to her seat with some manner of clear resolve but by the time she reached the table and sat down, it had quickly melted into nothing short of barely contained morose kind of anxiety.

Emily frowned and pushed JJ’s iced tea that had arrived in her absence towards her. “Are you okay? What happened?”

JJ’s mouth opened and closed a few times before she shook her head tightly and took slow, measured sips of her drink to try and collect herself. Her plan of action had seemed so workable when she’d been outside but now, sitting here in front of Emily, she knew she was going to chicken out. She was still absolutely certain that they’d accidentally managed to get themselves into a date, even if she were the only one that had consciously realized it, and she was still pretty certain that something had passed between them before they’d been interrupted, but that turned out to be part of the problem.

JJ hadn’t been hyperbolic when she was nervously rambling to Garcia and had said she couldn’t do meaninglessness with Emily but she’d been too wound up to have the wherewithal to explain herself better. JJ was just as aware as Emily that they thought the other was attractive, that had never been an issue. The issue lay in the very harsh reality that it was easily possible to be attracted to someone and never want anything from or with them. Jennifer thought Morgan was pretty sexy but the idea of _doing_ anything with him was so ludicrous that she honestly couldn’t picture it even on a joking level.

Up until her conversation with Garcia, JJ had believed that that’s the kind of attraction Emily had towards her and in return, she _prayed_ Emily assumed as that much about her. But even with the reality that there had been _something_ in Emily’s gaze and even though JJ had a tiny knot of thrill still sitting in the pit of her stomach that if she could just say the right things, there was a reasonable chance that she could make something happen tonight, she couldn’t do it. Penelope had been one hundred percent right that Emily didn’t do anything meaninglessly—platonically or otherwise—once she let someone in; that had never been a doubt in JJ’s mind. But JJ had been stewing in her growing attraction, affection, and finally love for Emily for the three years she’d known her. In that entire time she had never seen that little flicker of ‘something different’ in the way Emily looked at her before. 

Pulling the trigger on whatever might be between them had seemed like a good and reasonable idea outside but it meaning more to her than to Emily rattled something deep within JJ that for all her verbal skills, she was sure she didn’t have a name for. Even just looking at the soft frown on the brunette’s face and her warm dark eyes searching her face with care made JJ feel a little choked up. Just the _idea_ of Emily telling her in some gentle and sincere way that she wasn’t looking for serious commitment and loved her but wasn’t _in_ love with her was devastating enough that she knew she couldn’t confront the reality. Between getting off the phone with Garcia and sitting down, Jennifer had come to the sudden and oddly painful realization that she had fallen into a kind of love that she hadn’t experienced before.

More than a few times in the past, she had been in love with people that cared for her a great deal but didn’t love her and she pursued them anyway. It was probably a stupid habit, but incredibly painful though it was, it was a habit she could rarely seem to stop indulging in. JJ had always figured ‘something’s better than nothing’ when you got to spend even a little time with someone you were in love with so the resulting pain had always seemed worth it in the long run. Until now. The thought of being with Emily if Emily didn’t love her shattered JJ in a way that made her want to relive every breakup from all those ill advised relationships and flings consecutively and in vivid Technicolor. Less than six hours ago she’d been so sure that if she knew there was a chance with Emily, she’d take it and now here she was making a liar out of herself in the worst way.

 Jennifer Jareau never did anything half-assed and when she got herself stuck between a rock and a hard place she _really_ wedged herself in there.

She blinked a few times and cleared her throat when she registered that Emily was still waiting patiently for an explanation; that heavy realization had hit her so fully and sucked the wind out of her sails so completely that she’d gotten a little dazed and disconnected. JJ shook her head again, this time trying to do something physical to get these new thoughts clamoring for her attention out of her head. There was only room in her small frame for so much anxiety at once and now was the most inconvenient time to deal with this.

She nodded her head up quickly to indicate the back of the restaurant behind Emily and said; “There was a guy by the bathrooms who had a tattoo _just_ like the ones the infected werewolves had.” She lied, knowing full well that she was feeding her own temporary paranoia now that her mind was going to have to dwell on that idea. “I panicked and went to ask Pen about animal attacks in the area, and it’s not like I really wanted to have Miranda privy to _that_ conversation.” At least that was partially true.

Emily nodded sympathetically, but the worriment on her face didn’t dissipate as she reached across the table and squeezed JJ’s forearm briefly. “Well I ordered for you while you were talking to Garcia so once you get that post-monster movie burger in you maybe you’ll feel better.”

JJ let out a breath and relaxed a little as she nodded, furrowing her brow slightly. “Don’t call it a _monster movie_ , Em. You make it sound like we just watched Monster Squad.”

“ _Excuse_ me, Jennifer,” Emily laughed with sarcastic contriteness, leaning back as their waiter came by to set their plates in front of them. “But I honestly can’t see the difference.”

“ _You,_ ” JJ picked up a french fry and pointed it accusatorily at Emily before biting into it aggressively but she was trying not to smile. “Are _such_ an asshole sometimes and I honestly don’t know how I’ve managed to know you this long and not to shoot you.”

Emily set down the fork she had picked up and gestured to herself with a wave of her hand, a convincing look of shocked disbelief on her face. “And ruin all this? You would never.”

“Keep testing me, Prentiss.” JJ warned sternly, glaring at her.

Emily didn’t reply but didn’t look away either and they looked at each other until the amusement in Emily’s eyes slipped fleetingly into that _something_ from earlier. JJ wasn’t sure if Emily even knew she was doing it but since she’d had her little epiphany, it wasn’t something she wanted to, or _could_ dwell on anymore. At least not right now. She cleared her throat and made a show of focusing on starting to deconstruct her hamburger.

“So besides the obvious,” JJ said as casually as she could manage. “What did Miranda want?”

“To _apologize,_ if you can believe that.” She chuckled at the look on JJ’s face and nodded understandingly. “I know! She seemed…” Emily tilted her head to one side. “I think ‘serious’ is too strong of a word, but definitely somewhere around there. At least she seemed really honest about wanting to not be,”

“Such a bitch?” JJ interrupted.

“More or less.” Emily laughed. “She said, with no prompting from me I might add, that she wanted to _actually_ talk things out with me and, get this, she wants to eventually apologize to you and Garcia.”

“And you believe her?”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Hardly; it’s only been two months and this _is_ Miranda we’re talking about.”

“Just checking.”

“I really don’t think the complete attitude adjustment is real but I _do_ think she’s serious about wanting to actually try. I feel…I don’t know, obligated to help her get her head out of her ass.”

“You’re really the best of us sometimes, Em.” She shook her head in fond confusion. “I’m sure Pen’ll be glad to hear you haven’t lost your mind.”

“Why would she think I had?”

“I’d mentioned Bambi was here,” JJ explained. “And making doe-eyes at you.” Close enough to the truth. “And she got worried for a second you guys were going to try and get back,” she cut herself off with a laugh at the mildly horrified look on Emily’s face.

“ _God_ no.” Emily insisted with a shake of her head. “Friends only.” She shrugged and smirked. “Friends with benefits _maybe,_ but only if she’s actually not such a collection of problematic bullshit anymore.”

 JJ snorted. “Right? I think I’d forgotten how hot she is because all the pretentious ignorance just kills it.”

Emily looked at her thoughtfully. “Isn’t that an oxymoron?”

“Could be, but am I wrong?”

“You know I’d fight people off to be the first to admit it if you were.”

“Keep testing me, Prentiss.” JJ laughed with a shake of her head.

They fell into easy conversation over the rest of dinner and JJ realized how much she’d missed just being in the other woman’s company. Obviously there were plenty of lovesick related reasons for her to want to be alone with Emily, but the brunette was her friend first and foremost and it had been far too long since they’d spent time together where their attentions weren’t divided. Towards the end of dinner, JJ really _had_ seen a man near the back of the restaurant who sported a large red tattoo on the front of his neck that looked eerily similar to the infected werewolves they’d seen in the movie and she’d very nearly had a panic attack when he couldn’t seem to keep from staring at her. A small part of her—a very small part of her—acknowledged that the design hadn’t been unusual or complex so it wouldn’t be unlikely for someone to have something similar, but the overwhelming majority of her brain decided to inform her that not only had she ensured his turning up by lying about it before, he obviously knew that she knew which threw open every door imaginable JJ had for worst case scenarios and given the job she had, there were _a lot_ of doors.

Emily had been able to calm her rising panic to the level of a dull roar, her transitory paranoia taking sudden precedence over the baseline anxiety of being flustered with herself for dissolving into such a state _every time_ , the anxiety she’d developed on realizing that she wouldn’t be able to keep Penelope on the phone as long as usual since she had plans with Reid the next day, and the anxiety over the far too recent grasp on just how in over her head she was with the woman across from her. Emily had tried to reason that the guy was ‘regular checking her out’ and not ‘turning into a rabid bipedal wolf terror to murder her checking her out’ which she admitted wasn’t appealing either, but it was definitely better than having your entrails ripped out. When that hadn’t been terribly effective, Emily had turned in her seat to catch the guy’s eye and JJ wished she could have seen the black look the brunette must have given him because he averted his gaze immediately and shifted slightly in his chair so his line of sight couldn’t land on JJ without twisting uncomfortably in his seat. Emily’d then ordered that ‘horrific’ fried banana peanut butter sundae to go and decided that that was enough being in public spaces for the night.

“It’s fine, Jay, really.” Emily was saying to JJ’s latest protest as they waited for the dessert order. “You’re too worked up to drive as it is, I’m not going to make you drive me to the city and then drive back alone.”

“For god’s sake, Emily,” JJ countered exasperatedly. “I live in Ballston, not Argentina. It’s only like fifteen minutes to your place _and_ my place from here either way so let me just take you home. It’ll make _me_ feel better.”

Emily rolled her eyes fondly. “I know you’re worried, but I _do_ have a gun.”

“On you?”

“A switchblade then.”

“Those are illegal in DC, Em.”

Emily shrugged. “We’re not _in_ DC right now, Jayje.” She said with a cheeky smile, idly tapping the pen she’d used to sign the cheque against the table. “You’re not going to win this one. As much as you want to act like I didn’t notice, you were _shaking_ not five minutes ago. _I’m_ driving _you_ home, we’ll call Garcia, and I’ll catch a cab after she gets there, it’ll be _fine_.”

JJ frowned and muttered, “tomorrow’s Sunday.

Emily nodded in understanding and checked her ever-present watch. It was ten to two in the morning and she knew since Garcia wasn’t used to functioning on little to no sleep like the rest of the team—she likely wouldn’t be able to talk JJ down without falling asleep even though she’d for sure try her damndest. Emily was doing her best to mentally shuffle around the list of things she had to do the next day with picking up her car later than planned when JJ cut into her thoughts.

“Pen said I could still call her, and I will if I need to,” she said, not meeting Emily’s gaze too long as she was busy casting her own around the slowly emptying restaurant. “But is there any way I could bribe you to stay tonight? Feel free to say no if you can’t, I know you have a lot to do tomorrow and promise it’ll be fine.” JJ mentally pat herself on the back for doing an excellent job at keeping the over hopeful tone out of her voice. She was glad they didn’t work on the weekends when there wasn’t a case since she knew that while she’d calmed down some, the fears she had only faded either with feeling safe or with time. She’d never admit to such a thing, but her internal upset was enough that if she were left alone tonight, there was no way she was going to sleep. At least if Emily wouldn’t be able to stay, she’d have most of tomorrow to nap off tonight’s anxious alertness when she eventually came out the other end of the Tunnel of Preposterous Paranoia. JJ couldn’t tell by Emily’s expression which way she was going to answer but whatever she was going to respond with was put on hold when Miranda stopped by the table on her way out with her friends.

“We’re heading out,” she said, inclining her head towards the boisterous group moving towards the door. “And I wanted to say goodbye, and that I realized I’d forgotten to tell you I moved too.” 

“You moved?” Emily asked with a little interest as she smiled a thanks at the waiter who set a white plastic bag containing JJ’s dessert down on the table.

“To a townhouse in Dupont Circle.” Miranda confirmed with a nod. She smiled a little as she watched Emily catch on to what she was actually saying. Miranda now lived less than two miles away from the profiler _and_ she had no upstairs neighbours. “I know it’s really late, or really early, but I was wondering if you wanted to come by? You know, continue our discussion and I’d like you to see the place at least.” she glanced over at JJ. “If you’re not busy, I mean.”

JJ tensed up and bit the inside of her lower lip to keep from blurting out something stupid. She’d given Emily an out from staying with her but she hoped she didn’t take it. She could muscle through the aimless panic of wandering around her apartment turning on every light and talking to Garcia until the hacker fell asleep on her, but not only was that a wholly unappealing turn of events, Miranda hadn’t needed to use any kind of undertone to convey what she was offering. The ‘date’ she’d been on with Emily had been rendered effectively over once the cheque had been paid so JJ wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t feeling jealousy spurred annoyance about Miranda’s interruption but she _was_ surprised, and unnerved, that she did in fact feel jealous.

JJ had never had any problems accepting the fact that if she wasn’t with someone she had feelings for; they were likely going to be with other people. Even when she was in love with a few of the flings in her past that hadn’t loved her in return and hadn’t wanted anything exclusive, she was able to acknowledge that they were free to be with other people and she really only got upset about it when it impacted her time with them too much. She’d been that way with Emily as well—they could talk to each other about other people and JJ never really felt any pain about it as long as Emily was happy and as long as their time together wasn’t intruded on. JJ had no reason to think that attitude would change, but here she was, filling slowly with a melancholy sort of jealousy that Miranda could just outright say something like that and reasonably expect a positive answer. She hoped to god for the sake of her friendship with Emily and her own sanity that this new development would fade the more she got used to the idea that she hadn’t been in love like this before. 

She breathed in deeply with guilty relief when Emily shook her head. 

“I can’t tonight,” she said, glancing warmly at JJ to let her know she was going to stay. “But I’ll give you a call?”

Miranda’s expression was disappointed, but she smiled brightly. “Sure thing.” She briefly touched Emily’s arm. “I hope you have a good night, then. It was good seeing you, Emmy.” She nodded to JJ, her smile twitching almost imperceptibly. “You too, Jennifer.”

“Likewise.” JJ replied and nudged her foot against Emily’s under the table when the brunette snorted quietly while trying to hold in a chuckle at the imitation of Miranda’s falsely sincere tone.

“You ready?” Emily asked after her ex left, pushing herself away from the table to stand up.

JJ nodded and did the same. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said, seemingly unable to stop herself from digging emotional holes and diving into them headfirst. “You could have gone.”

Emily laughed and handed JJ the bag before moving to walk slightly in front of her. “Please, I’m not that easy.” She said good-naturedly. “I’m not stepping foot into anywhere with her that’s not a public space until she can demonstrate that she’s not just angling to get me in bed.”

“You’re mighty sure of yourself there, Agent Prentiss.” JJ teased, too busy feeling her senses rise back to high alert once they stepped out of the restaurant to notice Emily move closer to her and set their pace at a brisk walk.

Emily shrugged and smiled cockily. “I have reason to be.” She assured.

“I’ll _bet_.” JJ returned, relieved that her mind was too busy using all of its functions to stay alert to speculate on the brunette’s statement.

“Keys.” Emily requested with an upturned palm once they were close to JJ’s car.

“ _Emily_ ,” the blonde whined. She knew she was a ridiculous mess right now but that didn’t mean she wanted to be reminded or that she couldn’t navigate her car five miles with no problems. “I can manage driving us home in one piece.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Like you managed to not drop your sundae to reach for a gun that’s not there when that car with the loud speakers drove by? I’m sure.” She wiggled her fingers. “Keys.”

JJ sighed dejectedly. “I didn’t even get to open the carton.”

“As much as I think the universe was doing you a favour, if you have the stuff at the house, I’ll make you one when we get there.” Emily promised. “Now give me your keys before go after them.”

JJ seriously contemplated her odds of Emily actually checking her pockets against how terrible of an idea that would be in the long run before deciding to just hand them over. As she pulled out her keys, a small white card came out with them and fluttered to the ground between them.

“You dropped something.” Emily said absentmindedly as she bent to retrieve it. “Antoine?” she asked, exchanging the card for JJ’s keys.

Honestly with everything else that had gone on that night, JJ had totally forgotten about the brief encounter and the business card in her pocket. “The guy who used my cellphone.” She explained, getting into the car.

“He gave you his business card?” Emily asked while adjusting the mirrors after she’d sat down.

“He asked me to dinner sometime.” JJ had been almost sure that she saw Emily’s face fall, but it was shorter than a heartbeat and it was more likely wishful imagining. “He gave me his number on the card so it would be up to me to set it up.”

“Are you going to call him?”

JJ shrugged and pretended to look out of the left side of the windshield so she could try and catch Emily’s expressions. “I don’t know, maybe. He seemed pretty nice; would you?”

Emily chuckled. “You mean would _I_ or would I if I were you?”

“Either,” JJ laughed. “Both.”

“Dunno,” she shrugged. “It takes more than a pretty face to lure me in.”

“I’m sorry,” JJ said with pretended confusion. “But did we not just run into Miranda back there because if I imagined that, I’m really appalled that that’s what I came up with.”

“That,” Emily drawled. “Is an excellent point.”

“Of course it is, look who you’re talking to.” She grinned when Emily just shook her head. “So now that we’ve established that, would you if you were me?”

“If I were you…” Emily trailed off for a moment and gave a sad sigh that was drowned out by JJ’s text notification going off. “If I were you, I would.”

JJ turned her head to look out of her own window and tried not to be disappointed in the answer. After all, he really _had_ seemed nice and there was nothing she could justifiably be disappointed about Emily’s answer. “Maybe I will then.” She said, clearing her throat as a way to distract from the too-solemn tone in her voice. She pulled out her cellphone to see a message from Garcia: ‘ _How did it go?? The suspense is killing me! Text back ASAP!’_

In the middle of formulating a reply, another message came: ‘ _On second thought, don’t text me! I don’t want to interrupt if you guys are [getting] busy! Have a GOOD night, sugar! XO’_

JJ tapped against her screen with a shake of her head: ‘ _She’s staying over, but in the guest room like always. I couldn’t do it. I realized something and couldn’t do it. Call you about it tomorrow though. I’m probably going to get all emotional and I don’t have any space for that right now.’_

She briefly skimmed the words on her screen when her phone chimed again, Garcia expressing concern and love but JJ had been serious about not having space for that kind of thing so she stuck her phone back in her pocket. “Stop at that Harris Teeter.” JJ directed, pointing to the grocery store. “We need bananas.”

“ _You_ need bananas.” Emily corrected. “I’m not eating that shit.”

“You said it was plenty good the last time you tried it.” JJ protested.

“I was _also_ really drunk.” Emily pointed out while pulling into a space in the mostly empty lot.

That was fair. Emily had had wonderful things to say about a piece of plain restaurant bread that night too. “If you hate it so much, why do you know how to make it?”

Emily smiled and shook her head. “I know how to make a lot of things I care about myself too much to eat.” She flipped the radio on and unbuckled her seatbelt. “Stay in the car and watch the front door and that’s it, okay?”

JJ smiled gratefully at Emily’s implementation of distraction methods and nodded, turning away from the windshield to look at Emily who was now standing outside the car and leaning an arm on the open door, ducking her head down so she could see JJ.

“I’ll see if they carry silver bullets in the back.” She said with a wide smile, laughing when JJ threw the travel pack of tissues from the cup holder at her.

“We’re not friends anymore.” JJ informed her, catching the tissues when Emily tossed them back inside.

“You say that now,” Emily said knowingly. “But watch how happy you are to see me when I get back.” She shut the door loudly and made a show of doing a visual sweep of the parking lot while she quickly made for the front of the store by slightly exaggerating her movements.

JJ knew she was doing it for her benefit and it _did_ lower her panic slightly to know that Emily was being careful. She groaned and let her head fall heavily against the rest without taking her eyes off the doors to the supermarket. Emily had no idea how right she was and JJ had no idea what she was going to do now.


	7. Chapter 7

“Do you think this is going to count towards our time off rotation?” Morgan asked idly, pressing down on the gas pedal a little more firmly. “Because _someone_ promised us we’d be on stand down for a while.”

In the front passenger seat next to Derek, Rossi smirked but didn’t answer, knowing the question was rhetorical. They had indeed been promised a break; they were supposed to be on stand down for what was left of the month but a rash of kidnappings in Elkton Maryland while the other teams were otherwise engaged had them not only making the trek, but staying in the area so they would lose as little time as possible. Six excruciatingly long days later, they had caught the guy with the help of the LEOs and were now gladly making the two and a half hour drive back to Quantico, Morgan’s typically lead foot keeping him ahead of the other SUV carrying Hotch, Reid, and JJ. They rumbled over a small rough patch in the road and Morgan snickered when Emily groaned uncomfortably from the backseat.

“You doing okay back there, Crash?” he asked, glancing in the rearview mirror to grin at her supine form sprawled across the seats.

Emily nodded tightly, her left hand lightly pressed to the side of her head where their unsub had managed to get the drop on her with a shovel. “I’d be better if you didn’t insist on going warp nine over every goddamn bump in the road.”

Morgan chuckled but didn’t let up on the gas. “Don’t worry, Princess, I’ll getcha home in one piece.” He promised. “Take one of those vicodins the local gave you and mellow out.” He glanced at her in the mirror again where she had sat up slightly to meet his gaze with a black look that would have been intimidating if she didn’t look so petulant. “Oh that’s right,” he said, glancing merrily at Rossi as his voice took on the kind of tone one normally reserved for small children and adorable animals. “We’ve got to get some food in you first since vicodin makes your tummy so upset.”

“Fuck off, Morgan.” Emily grumbled perturbedly, moving her hand away from the lump hidden by her hair to punch the back of the driver’s seat which only made him laugh.

“Now children,” Rossi reprimanded with a smile in his voice. “Play nice, we still have almost a whole hour before we get back.”

“Sorry,” Morgan mumbled automatically, not sounding the least bit apologetic.

“I’m not; you’re an asshole.” Emily replied, punching the back of Derek’s seat again.

Morgan chuckled with a shake of his head, understanding that Emily wasn’t as irritated as she sounded but that was her way of coping with the pain she most certainly was in without outright expressing it. “How is your head though, Prentiss?” he asked sincerely, knowing from experience he was going to get a stock answer but compelled to ask anyway.

“Fine.” She sighed predictably, wincing as they hit another dip in the road. “I am actually starving though.”

The statement seemed to have been added as an afterthought but Morgan knew vicodin really did mess with his partner’s stomach and likely it was less that she was hungry and more that she wanted to take her painkillers, which let him know she was hurting bad at the moment. Half the time when the team’s star head injury collector was prescribed any painkillers, the only way she’d take them was if someone (usually JJ or Garcia) guilt tripped her into it. Emily giving any indication that she was going to take them on her own, even wrapped in as vague a statement as being hungry, meant that she was in a lot more pain than she was letting on.

“Me too.” Morgan replied, letting her keep her façade. “You got anything at the castle?”

Emily rolled her eyes. “We’ve been gone for a week.” She pointed out, reclining again. “I’m sure the only thing I have that isn’t covered in penicillin by now is wine.”

“That’s fine for me, but no alcohol and no driving for you for the next forty-eight hours; so where do you wanna go, Miss Daisy?”

 “I swear to god, Morgan…” Emily grumbled, her voice nothing short of a sincere warning.

“Alright, alright.” Derek acquiesced with a boyish grin before glancing over at Rossi to ask, “How long is the debriefing going to take?”

Rossi shrugged and subtly gripped the armrest set into the door as Morgan skated the line between just driving fast and auditioning as a getaway driver. “Depends on how much you guys goof off on the preliminary paperwork and initial statements.” He replied, holding back a small smile when Emily let out a weary groan from the backseat.

“I second that.” Morgan said firmly. “But hey, maybe the three of us can get a head start on the case report and leave those slow losers to stew after the debriefing?”

“If you hit _one more_ pothole at this speed,” Emily threatened. “I’m telling Hotch you called him a loser.”

“I’ll make sure I catch two more just for you, Princess.” He replied jovially, betraying his own statement by slowing down to only _slightly_ over the posted limit. “Whaddya say, old man,” he continued, addressing Rossi. “Wanna grab something with me and Crash after the briefing?”

“I’m putting in for a transfer.” Emily grunted in irritation.

“Watch those old man comments, Derek.” Rossi said in admonition, but his tone belied his reprimand as he glanced over his shoulder with a smile at Emily who had her eyes squeezed shut and her hand still pressed to her head like that was going to stop the ache from spreading. “Unfortunately, I am otherwise engaged this evening, but I’m sure you could find a willing third. JJ, perhaps?”

Morgan cut his eyes over to the older profiler, knowing there was an implication in his tone, but not one hundred percent certain he wasn’t inferring meaning that wasn’t there. Garcia had told him all about JJ and Emily’s ‘accidental’ date and the zaftig hacker had also filled him in about JJ’s revelation in regards to her feelings for his partner. On hearing it, Morgan had thought that was a _great_ development, but he could see things shifting between his friends. JJ was definitely a little more guarded around Emily. She was doing an incredible job of hiding it, but the looks on her face when she thought no one was paying attention to her were nothing short of heartbreaking. It wasn’t as if the whole team weren’t aware of the attraction between the two agents, but both of them were in deeper than initially thought and if Rossi _was_ giving his tacit approval, Morgan knew that would go a very long way once he and Garcia could manage to get them to lay things out on the table.

Derek grinned, unwilling to acknowledge the undercurrent of Rossi’s statement since Emily hadn’t reacted to it. The poor woman was half concussed as it was; there was no sense in embarrassing her on top of that. Not too much anyway. “Maybe,” he agreed, glancing in the review mirror at his friend again. “What do you think, Prentiss? I’m sure JJ could get you to stop being a hard ass and take your damn pills before we even leave the office.”

Emily lifted her free hand from where it had been resting on her stomach and thrust her middle finger in the air without opening her eyes, figuring she’d managed to hold it high enough to be seen in the mirror by the snickering from the front seat. “I’m _fine_.” She insisted. “I’m just hungry is all. Didn’t anyone tell you to never be an asshole to a woman who just had her head used for batting practice?”

Morgan scoffed. “But I’d never get to pick on you again and then how would you know I care?”

“JJ’s got plans with Garcia anyway.” Emily continued as if he hadn’t spoken.

“She does?” he smirked, holding back the comment that Emily was better than a PDA when it came to JJ.

“She was supposed to go out with Garcia last Friday, but then we got the case, so…” Emily trailed off by way of explanation.

“Oh and you weren’t invited? I’m offended on your behalf.”

Emily groaned again, this time the sound having nothing to do with the thudding pain radiating from the back left side of her head. “I was supposed to be meeting Andi for drinks.”

“Drinks on a Friday?” Rossi cut in with mostly concealed disappointment in a paternalistic tone. “Emily, surely you’re not,”

“ _No_.” Emily promised before he could finish the thought. “Absolutely not. Why’s everybody so worried about that?”

“Beats me;” Morgan said easily, his shoulders bobbing once as he shrugged. “There’s no way you can be that stupid twice, let alone twice in a row. _I’ve_ always believed in you, buddy.”

“Thanks.” Emily said in a way that made the statement sound nearly identical to an irritated ‘fuck you;’ more sure than ever that if Derek knew the whole story behind the break up, she’d never hear the end of it.

“You know, Prentiss,” Derek continued, ignoring her rising frustration with him. “If it’s just a matter of taking the edge off, I know a couple women who’d be more than happy to,” he cut himself off with a loud laugh when he felt her punch the back of his seat again, the thick cushioning at his back jerking gently forward with the action.

As predicted, Morgan got them back to Quantico before the rest of the team, Penelope breezing out of her lair once they entered the bullpen to fuss over Emily and her latest head trauma.

“Go away, Garcia.” Emily grumbled, waving off her friend’s repeated attempts to get her to eat some of the snacks she kept hidden around her office so Emily could take her medication.

“Sorry, my sweet,” Garcia chirped happily, patting Emily’s shoulder fondly while the profiler cradled her head in her hands with her elbows resting on her desk. “But that’s never going to happen. You _could_ get me to stop pestering you if you just eat this and take your pills.” She tapped Emily on the forearm with the small pack of sandwich crackers she was teetering on the edge of force-feeding her.

Emily was obviously in pain—anyone would be after getting beaned in the head by a grown man as physically imposing as the unsub had been. It had been a small miracle she hadn’t lost consciousness or needed stitches. Penelope figured that Emily got whacked in the head enough that her poor broody baby was building a resistance to being rendered unconscious but why she insisted on muscling through such obvious discomfort was beyond her. Maybe it was a tough girl thing, she didn’t know, but she wasn’t above pulling out the big guns to make Emily take care of herself.

“Listen up, Wonder Woman,” Garcia continued from her perch on the edge of Emily’s desk. “Eat this and take your meds and I promise I won’t exaggerate to JJ how much pain you’re in and let _her_ convince you to stop being a stubborn child for ten seconds, how does that sound?” she grinned widely when Emily looked up to glare at her and snatch the crackers out of her hand, opening them with an overstated flourish. JJ was the worst (or best, if you asked her) about mothering her teammates when they were injured; especially when it came to Emily and Reid.

“I hate every last one of you.” Emily informed them around a mouthful of cracker and treating them all to their own annoyed glower.

“Hey,” Rossi defended from his position leaning against Reid’s desk, not looking up from the file in his hands. “Leave me out of it, I didn’t do anything.”

“That’s the problem.” Emily grumbled.

Rossi glanced over at her and offered an unapologetic smile. “Sorry, kiddo, but it’s for your own good.” He shrugged genially. “At least save the vitriol for later in the week. Tuesday is pretty early in the game to hate _everyone_.”

Emily frowned and looked like she was going to offer a retort when the glass doors to the BAU swung open and Hotch strode purposely towards them, JJ and Reid trailing behind and laughing. Morgan chuckled as the perpetual grimace Emily had been wearing since they’d gotten into the SUV disappeared and she leaned back in her chair casually in an attempt to downplay the effect her injury was having on her.

 Hotch made his way over to Rossi to discuss something in low voices while JJ and Reid joined the others.

“How’s your head feeling, Emily?” Reid asked kindly, tucking some of his hair behind his ear.

Emily groaned inwardly, hating being fussed over but she offered him a sincere smile and shrugged. “Fine,” she assured. “It’s really not as bad as you guys seem to think.”

“You’re lying.” JJ asserted, her tone confident but un-accusatory as she reached over to grip Emily’s chin and tilt her head to the side as if trying to assess if any more damage had been done since they parted ways to return to Virginia. She nodded at the detached look in Emily’s eyes as if that confirmed her statement and dropped her hand to address Garcia. “Did you get her to take the vicodin?”

Garcia nodded gleefully toward the half empty package of crackers. “In the process as we speak, Sunshine. No worries, you know how stubborn she is.”

JJ rolled her eyes and smiled. “She’s so grumpy when she’s in pain and she thinks if she’s extra surly, we won’t notice.”

“She is also _right here_.” Emily pointed out darkly, only barely managing to resist shuddering when JJ threw her a teasing wink.

“My point.” JJ said, gesturing to her injured friend with one hand like she were trying to draw attention to a game show prize and she laughed when Emily swatted her away, pushing back against the brunette’s hand before she had time to fully withdraw it. “Eat your damn crackers, Prentiss.” JJ ordered, the edge to her demand softened by the laugh still in her voice.

Emily rolled her eyes and muttered something in Arabic under her breath but did as she was told, flicking a nearby errant paperclip towards Garcia when she looked like she was going to say something as soon as she was done giggling.

“We gonna do this debriefing or what?” Morgan said from his position at his own desk where he’d been leaning back and watching the women with amusement.

Hotch sighed and pulled himself out of his conversation with Rossi to look at his watch for a moment, silently weighing his options. It was already well after five and while he knew that if he did the time consuming process of the debriefing now that they would stay without any genuine complaint, they _had_ been promised stand down and had similarly taken off to Maryland without any guff. “It’s almost six,” he acquiesced. “Let’s call it a night and we’ll do it first thing in the morning.”

Morgan let out a pleased little whoop and rose to his feet when Penelope strode by him. “Baby Girl,” he called to get her attention as he caught up to her. “Can I get a minute?”

“You can get several, Hercules.” She replied with a nod as they walked off toward her lair.

“What do you think they’re so cozy about?” JJ asked curiously, taking Garcia’s vacated position on Emily’s desk without forethought.

“Dunno.” Emily shrugged and scooted her chair off to the side so she could rest her elbows on the desktop and so JJ’s crossed legs weren’t directly in her line of sight. She smirked lowered her voice slightly. “Maybe he’s gone to ask her out.”

“They’re way beyond that.” JJ demurred, leaning her weight on one hand and unable to pass up the opportunity to invade her friend’s personal space by plucking a bit of lint from her shoulder.

Emily reluctantly took the bottle of water JJ handed to her with a raised eyebrow—a shorthand for ‘ _don’t think I didn’t notice you’re still trying to get out of taking your pain meds and think you were going to be left alone just because you ate the damn crackers_ ’ delivered in the no nonsense tone of the determined set of her mouth and the stern look in her eyes that brooked no argument.

JJ watched Emily move at a childishly stubborn pace as she popped one of the pills out of the bottle in her pocket, making a show of putting the white tablet on her tongue before drinking down the water, the objection at being coerced clear in her eyes as she stared at the blonde. JJ ignored the silent complaining and elaborated on her previous statement; “at this point, I accept nothing less than a proposal.”

“That’s awfully demanding of you, Jen.” Emily pointed out, resting her chin in one hand and tilting her head slightly so she could look at her better.

“I’m _awfully_ demanding, Em.” JJ teased, nudging the brunette gently with her foot.

“ _Tell_ me about it.” Emily grumbled good-naturedly, bypassing the low hanging fruit the opening had provided.

JJ rolled her eyes. “I have to be if I want any of you to _do_ anything.”

“Hey,” Emily objected with affected offense. “ _I_ am _excellent_ at taking direction, I’ll have you know.”

JJ snorted and shook her head. “Since when?”

“Okay,” Emily shrugged and leaned back with an unrepentant grin. “Let me rephrase that: I’m excellent at taking direction depending on _who_ is giving the direction,” she had been holding JJ’s gaze up until that point when her eyes flicked subtly over her before meeting blue again. “And _what_ the direction is.”

While the innuendo was deliberate, JJ wasn’t sure if Emily’s appraisal was purposeful and she was absolutely certain that the lower octave of her voice wasn’t. She couldn’t imagine that Emily would let herself sound like that if she had any idea what that did to her. JJ tried to ignore the feeling of heat trying to grab her attention from the inside out but was unable to tear her eyes away from her friend. It was because they were locked in some silent, subconscious conversation happening in their eyes that she noticed something trying to break the surface of Emily’s expression, which had been set to playful smugness in light of their banter. Whatever that something was barely had the chance to flicker across her face before it shifted into the briefest look of panic and then Emily must have gotten a rein on the unbidden emotion and JJ could almost hear the lid of the compartmentalization box slam down as Emily cleared her throat.

Emily turned away from the blonde who was studying her far more closely than comfort allowed and her gaze fell on Reid who was packing his leather satchel and regarding them thoughtfully. Normally, she’d be suspicious of such a look, even embarrassed that someone might have caught what she was having increasing difficulties in keeping buried but…it was Reid. He always looked at people like he was thinking because he was always thinking. She smiled at him as he slipped his bag over his head.

“Morgan and I are going to go grab something as soon as he gets back from his quality pervert time,” she informed him, nodding in the direction of Garcia’s office. “You in?”

Reid smiled slightly and he shook his head, looking at the floor. “I actually, uh,” he tucked his hair back and looked up at her. “I actually have a date if you can believe that.”

 “Is this a date with a _person_ ,”Emily grinned widely.  “Or a Tolstoy novel?”

JJ shoved Emily’s shoulder gently, ignoring the profiler’s perfunctory ‘hey, injured woman!’ “Be nice to Spence,” she scolded gently, knowing that there had been nothing but fondness in Emily’s teasing and she turned her attention to Reid, who was smiling. “That’s great; is it this mysterious Caroline you keep going off to lectures with? Are we going to get to meet her?”

Reid blushed a little and nodded. “Yeah, I’m going to ask her today if she wants to go to the party Garcia’s having before we go back on rotation.”

“Can’t wait.” JJ replied sincerely, returning his slight wave as he made his way toward the elevators, shaking his head as Emily’s childishly singsonged ‘Reid’s got a girlfriend’ followed him.

“So what do you think, Baby Girl?” Morgan was saying, as Penelope moved through the routine she had when she left for the day. “Is this doable?”

Garcia hummed and nodded. “I’m so proud that my knack for espionage is starting to rub off on you.” She looked up from shutting down her personal laptop and grinned lasciviously at him. “Not that that’s the _only_ thing I’d like to rub off on you.”

Morgan laughed loudly, shaking his head. “Oh I don’t doubt that.” He replied with a wink. “We good on the plan then?”

“Yep. We ‘unexpectedly’ end up at the same restaurant, I’ll beg some fabulous excuse as to why we can’t eat there, you and I get the hell out of there leaving Jayje and SSA Concussion to have a nice dinner, yes?”

Morgan nodded. “And we all know how much JJ enjoys a doped up Prentiss.”

Garcia snorted. “Are you kidding? We all do; medicated Emily and drunk Emily are _adorable_. If I weren’t so dead set on those two gorgeous idiots grossing everyone out for eternity with a Disney level happily ever after, I’d stay with them just to watch the show.”

Derek chuckled in agreement and moved across Garcia’s office space when she let out a little squeal to look over her shoulder where she was pointing excitedly at part of one of her screens. “What’s up?”

“Look at that,” she said excitedly, drawing Morgan’s attention to the security feed that was trained on the bullpen. With Rossi having left for the night, Reid shaking his head as he made his way out of the bullpen, and Hotch in his office, the only people left to focus on were JJ and Emily; the blonde sitting on Emily’s desk almost bent over from laughter while Emily was clearly trying to look annoyed and failing spectacularly. Even with the slightly grainy quality of the video, Emily’s expression of adoration was easily discernable. Garcia sighed and glanced up at Morgan who was hovering near her shoulder with a smile on his face. “I don’t understand how two people can be _that_ into each other and be _that_ clueless about it.”

Morgan shook his head, resting his weight on the back of Garcia’s chair with one hand and pulling his gaze away from the monitor to look at Penelope. “I don’t think they’re really clueless.” He admitted, his tone serious. “They’re both scared and it’s blinding them to the obvious.” Morgan returned his eyes to the screen when he had the sudden realization that he wasn’t just talking about Emily and JJ. “They’re insecure and so scared of what they might lose that taking the risk for what they might gain is too unthinkable.”

Garcia had been looking at Morgan the whole time, watching the profiler watch the screen and she was getting the distinct impression that there was more experience than observation in his assessment. Part of her wanted to ask, but she weighted her own words instead, deciding to let him take what he wanted from it. “Everyone has a breaking point, Derek.”

He glanced over at her, expression slightly confused. “What do you mean?”

“They’re both waiting for the other to do something.” She pointed out. “One thinks they’re protecting the other from them; that they’re not going to be good enough, that they’re going to screw up the precious thing they already have, that they’re so…” she paused thoughtfully. “ _Consumed_ by what they feel that they convince themselves they’re reading into things because it’s what they want to be true but they’re scared that it could be that simple.” She shrugged. “So they get deadlocked in an emotional Mexican Standoff where no one’s going to pull the trigger.”

Morgan hummed attentively, mentally telling his internal voice to stop dwelling on the fact Garcia hadn’t used any specific pronouns in her reflections. “So if no one’s gonna pull the trigger,” he said, still not looking at her. “Then is what we’re doing useless in the long run?” He finally slid his gaze towards her when she chuckled amusedly, shaking her head.

“Everyone has a breaking point.” She reminded him. “If we keep giving them reasons to realize it, one of them is going to cave.” Garcia nodded toward the monitor to narrow their two-layered conversation back to one. Emily’s incredibly lax pose at her desk indicated that her painkiller had kicked in, one hand weaving lazily through the air as she was talking and the other propped under her chin. JJ was shaking her head in indulgent amusement, the fondness on her face obvious. “I think sooner, rather than later.”

Morgan nodded with a little smile and a sigh of relief that had more than a little to do with the unambiguity the conversation had returned to. He was about to take his leave since the plan was laid out when there was a light knock on the doorframe of Garcia’s lair, causing them both to turn toward the noise.

“Boy Wonder,” Garcia cooed at Reid with a smile on her face. “What can I do for my favourite doctor this evening?”

Reid returned her smile, digging around in his bag as he replied. “Do you still have the thirty I gave you for the pool last month?”

Garcia nodded enthusiastically. “You know I do, babycakes. Why, has the angel on your shoulder finally showed up and you want your money back?”

Reid pulled his wallet out of his bag and shrugged while shaking his head. “Just the opposite, actually.” He informed her, handing over a twenty-dollar bill. “I don’t feel any sort of moral quandary with betting odds on an ineluctable situation when the situation itself is gratifying for everyone involved.”

“Can’t argue in the face of Vegas logic like that.” Garcia teased, pulling a lockbox out from under her desk and slipping the twenty into the neat bundle of money held together with a rubber band that was already in there. She flipped open the little notebook inside and crossed out the ‘$30’ next to ‘S.R. Favour: Emily.’

“I want to change my bet to JJ as well.” He said, leaning forward slightly to watch Garcia scribble in the notebook that had a collection of names crowding the little lines.

“You giving up on Prentiss, Reid?” Morgan asked with amusement, crossing his arms. He himself had some money tied up in the now three month running ‘who’s going to initiate something’ office pool. It had started as a complete joke with two-dollar bets on JJ and Emily but in the last month, the betting had become serious and even competitive among the half dozen agents throwing money in. “You seemed so sure before.”

Reid shrugged. “I was, but I realized that I not only underestimated Emily’s ability to keep her feelings to herself indefinitely but exactly how driven she is by her pertinacious nature in the face of what she thinks is best.”

“She’s stubborn as hell.” Morgan summed up with a nod.

“I just said that.” He protested.

“So you’re just hoping that Jayje is gonna dark horse it for you? You know you can only change your bet once, right?” Derek looked over at Garcia to confirm and she nodded absentmindedly while she scribbled in the tiny notebook.

“The phrase ‘dark horse’ implies that the person being referred to has some kind of unexpected edge and whom little is known but it’s exactly because of what I know, or rather what I observed, that I want to change my bet.” Reid knew that things escaped his attention sometimes because he was too focused on a number of other things, but he certainly wasn’t as clueless as people assumed him to be. Not always, anyway.

Garcia raised her eyebrows and looked up at the lanky genius interestedly. “Oh yeah?” she prompted, depositing the little metal box back under her desk. “And what exactly did you observe watching the JJ and Emily Show then?”

Reid hiked his thumb behind him and smiled at his friends. “I’ve got to get going, I’m going to be late. See you guys tomorrow.”

“I think Pretty Boy just played us.” Morgan said with a laugh once the other man was out of sight. He stepped away from Garcia’s desk. “Well you ready to get this circus on the road?”

“Sure am.” Penelope switched off the last of her monitors and stood up to follow him out into the hall. “Ooo, does this make me the ringmaster?” she pulled the door shut tightly behind her. “Or a lion tamer?” she grinned and arched an eyebrow at Morgan. “You can be the lion.”

“The lion, huh?” Derek replied thoughtfully before looking over at her with an impish smile. “I don’t know how I feel about that whip though.”

Garcia rolled her eyes and pushed open the glass doors on their way toward the bullpen. “Wimp.”


	8. Chapter 8

“You know, Princess,” Derek said with a laugh as he parked his car and they got out. “You’re so much nicer when you’re high off your ass.”

Emily blinked hard once before rolling her eyes and shaking her head in annoyance but she was smiling. “I’m nice all the time;” she protested, “just not to you.”

Morgan clutched his hands to his chest and winced dramatically. “Damn girl; it’s like that, huh?”

“ _Some_ one has to keep your ego in check.” She pointed out happily before frowning slightly and gesturing toward the front of the restaurant as they approached. “Were we supposed to meet JJ and Garcia?”

Morgan grinned and shrugged casually. “Nah, but let’s go see if they wanna eat with us. Work for you?” He bumped her lightly with his shoulder. “Any excuse to hang out with your girlfriend, right?”

Emily looked over at him with wide, apologetic eyes. “I know you’re into Garcia so I’m really sorry, but our love is _real_ , Morgan.” She teased in a theatrical tone.

Morgan laughed loudly, drawing the two blonde’s attention towards them and Garcia waved them over excitedly.

“Well if it isn’t two of my favourite crime fighters!” Garcia greeted them enthusiastically. “How’s your head, Princess?”

“Feels like I got hit with a shovel.” Emily said sarcastically. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Arguing.” JJ responded while putting her hands on her hips. “I feel like Pen is the one who suggested we go to Meaza but now that we’re here, she doesn’t want to go.”

“I didn’t!” Garcia protested. “I objected that you’ve lived in the area for _how_ long and you’ve never had Ethiopian food? I was following _you_.”

“Waitaminute,” Emily said holding up one hand. “JJ you’ve _never_ had Ethiopian food?”

“That’s the same face Garcia made.” JJ laughed.

“I just don’t feel like dealing with spicy today.” Garcia interjected.

“How about this,” Morgan spoke up. “You two,” he swept his hand toward JJ and Emily. “Go and introduce JJ to the marvel that is Meaza and me and Baby Girl will go find something more agreeable to her stomach.”

JJ raised an eyebrow at Emily and tilted her head to the side: _they’re making this too easy._

Emily snickered and shrugged a shoulder slightly: _better send them off on their date._

“Okay,” Emily said after JJ nodded, looping her arm through JJ’s. “We’ll see you guys tomorrow then. We still on for wine and movies Friday?”

Garcia and Morgan nodded in tandem and Garcia answered, “Yes of course babycakes! And remember that we have my party on Saturday night!”

JJ waved over her shoulder as Emily led her into the restaurant with promises that they’d not forget about Garcia’s end of the month party.

“They’re making this too easy.” Morgan said once they were out of earshot.

“Entirely.” Garcia agreed with a pleased nod of her head. “So I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“Tomorrow?” Morgan fumbled, wanting to point out that he was serious about going to dinner with her.

“Yeah hot stuff.” Garcia laughed. “Work? Plotting how to make Friday work to our advantage over lunch? Come on.”

“Right, right, tomorrow then.” He responded with a sheepish chuckle and watching her walk to her car. “Damn.” He muttered when Garcia was out of earshot. This was getting ridiculous lately; maybe it was time to do something.

Sighing, Morgan shook his head and got back into his car, pulling out his cellphone when it started ringing. He smiled when he saw who it was and engaged the call: “Big sis! What’s up?”

“Hey little brother.” Sarah’s smooth voice said over the connection. “How’s things?”

“You know, same ol same ol.” Derek replied, pulling out of his parking spot.

“How’s my sister-in-law?”

“Your what now?”

Sarah laughed. “You know, Penelope. Stop playing like that’s not my sister-in-law.”

“I’m not playing like anything Sarah.”

“Bullshit. You know and I know and everyone else knows that that’s your baby girl.”

“It’s just a nickname.”

“And De Nile is just a river in Egypt. When are you going to stop playing games, Derek?”

Morgan sighed. “I don’t know, Sarah. I don’t know how she really feels.”

“You and I both know that’s a load of bull, little brother. Stop playing with this woman and get to it.”

“You’d like that wouldn’t you?”

“Me and everyone else.”

“Yeah well no one asked you.”

“No one needs to; I know.”

“I can’t talk to you, I’m driving.”

“You could talk to me just fine a minute ago.”

“Well now my attention’s divided and I can’t.”

 Sarah laughed. “Okay well I’ll let you go then. Think about what I said.”

“Yeah yeah.”

“Don’t you yeah yeah me you little hellion.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll think about it.”

“That’s better. Love you brother.”

“Love you too sis.”

Derek hung up the call and shook his head. Maybe Sarah was right. Maybe it was time to stop playing games. He drove in silence for a few minutes before slapping the steering wheel lightly and muttering “fuck it” to his empty car, pulling out his phone again and dialing a number he knew by heart: “Hey, Baby Girl, it’s me are you home yet? …Yeah? Mind if I stop by? …Okay, see you soon.”

Derek shuffled nervously in front of Penelope’s door, trying to work the nerves out of his system before she opened the door. He heard her moving around on the other side, her muffled voice alerting him to the fact that she was close by and had heard his knocking.

“Uh-huh.” Garcia was saying as she pulled open the door, motioning for Derek to come in with one hand while her other held her phone pressed to her ear. “Is that right? …No not surprised really just…yeah, exactly.” She gestured toward the couch and Morgan took a seat. “Well he’s here now so I’m gonna go. Okay…okay I will. Love you too. Bye.”

“Who was that?” Derek asked, only mildly hating the tiny spark of jealousy that flared up in him.

Garcia laughed and shook her head. “It was Sarah.”

“My sister Sarah?”

“Naturally.”

“What did she have to say?”

“Nothing I didn’t already know; can I get you something to drink?”

Morgan’s nerves returned and he nodded, getting up from the couch to follow Garcia into her kitchen. “Just water or something would be great.”

Garcia hummed that she heard him and puttered around the kitchen getting glasses and rifling through her fridge for bottled water. “So what did you wanna come over for or did you just miss my radiant presence?”

Morgan rubbed the back of his head briefly and shook his head. Did he even know what he was doing? “You know I can’t be away from you too long, mama.” When in doubt, fall back on the easy banter. He took the glass of water Garcia handed him and took a measured drink trying to buy himself some time.

Garcia must have noticed he was practically vibrating with nervous, unsure energy because her face creased into a frown and she set down her own glass without drinking any of its contents.

“Okay, what’s wrong?”

“Why would anything be wrong?”

Garcia shrugged in a ‘duh’ gesture. “You’re acting like you got called to the principals office and they’re calling your mom. What’s going on Derek? You can tell me, I can help.”

Derek sniffed a small laugh and looked at Penelope who was gazing at him expectantly. Could he do this? What had changed in the last hour that made him want to? Something Sarah said. She had just been joking, calling Garcia her sister-in-law but that had struck something in Derek. Had reminded him that he saw a future with Garcia. Maybe that was the wrong turn of phrase; when he looked at his future all he saw was Penelope. Everything came crashing into him at once. It had always been Garcia and it always would be. He was more committed to her than he had been with anyone and they weren’t even dating. The most important romantic relationship Derek ever had was with Penelope Garcia and they’d never even kissed. He could fix that. He could start here.

Derek felt like he was moving in slow motion while leaning forward. The look on Garcia’s face had morphed from concern to brief shock and then the desire on her face matched what he felt on his own expression and she met him halfway in a languid kiss. They stood making out like teenagers in Garcia’s kitchen for several minutes, Derek’s hands tangled in blonde hair and Penelope’s hands at his back before they both pulled away, breathing slightly heavy and both looking dazed.

“Oh wow.” Garcia murmured, her eyes still half closed. “What was that for?”

Derek realized in that instant that she was giving him an out. A chance to say it was a one time thing, that it didn’t mean what she wanted it to mean and he felt about to burst with love for her and the compassion and saint like patience she showed towards him. If he wanted to he could play this off and they could go back to how things always were between them but as he stood on that edge, Derek realized that he didn’t want to go backwards; he wanted to go forwards. Towards the future. Towards Penelope. Garcia had been waiting for him but she couldn’t wait forever and the thought of losing his chances with her was more terrifying than taking that step off the edge and trusting she would be there to catch him; that he would let himself be caught.

“I shoulda done that a long time ago.” Derek admitted, hands resting at her waist. He kissed her forehead. “A long time ago. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Sorry for what?” she shook her head. “You were scared, Derek. You’re terrible at hiding your feelings but I didn’t want to spook you, you know?”

“I know. You’ve always known me so well, Baby Girl and I’ve taken advantage of that but no more, you hear me? If you’ll let me, I want to make it up to you. I want to be serious.”

Garcia raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure? I’m not asking for anything, I just—”

“That’s the thing,” Derek interrupted firmly. “You’ve never asked me for anything, you’ve never demanded anything from me but what I give you freely and that means more to me than I can say but it’s time for me to stop playing around. You haven’t asked me for anything but maybe that’s exactly why I want to give you everything.” He leaned down and kissed her again, heat rising in his chest at the fact that he _could_. What had he been so afraid of? He couldn’t remember now. “I love you Penelope Garcia, you are my God-given solace and I would be honoured if you allowed me to try and prove that to you for as long as I can.”

Garcia’s breath hitched and she grinned dopily at him, patting his cheek gently with one hand. “Derek you are _fine_ but you’re simple. I’ve loved you for ages, angelfish. You don’t have to prove anything to me. As far as my hearts concerned, I’ve been yours from the word go, I’ve just been biding my time while waiting for you to realize it.”

Derek grinned and accepted a chaste kiss Garcia planted on his lips. “Not that I don’t want to shout it from the rooftops, but do you think we can keep this to ourselves for a little while.” He quickly continued when Garcia’s face fell slightly. “It’s just I want it to be just us for a bit. You know, before Emily starts organizing the parade.”

Garcia laughed. “Emily? She’ll have to fight JJ for that honour…speaking of which, how are we going to get those two idiots together? It seems like we’re _almost_ there but almost doesn’t cut it and I’m worried JJ is freaked out and is backing off.”

Morgan hummed and rested his chin on the top of Garcia’s head when she pressed her cheek to his chest. “I have an idea, actually.”

Penelope pulled back and gazed up at him with a mischievous glint in her eye. “I’m listening.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update. Things have been hectic to put it mildly in my personal life. I'm going to leave the temporary hiatus status up but I anticipate that updates should be coming more regularly. There'll probably be two or three more chapters after this before we're done. Thank you so much for the kudos and reviews to everyone (and if you're ever in the DC Metro Area, for real, eat at Meaza)


	9. Chapter 9

"Our Lady of Infinite Head Trauma needs another” Garcia teased while filling Emily’s wine glass. It was Friday night, their aforementioned wine and movie night and Garcia was stealthily holding up her end of the plans she’d made with Morgan. Emily, ever the connoisseur, had already had three glasses of wine to her one and JJ’s two, this made four.

“Can it, Garcia.” Emily said sourly though there was a smile on her face. “I can’t help it if I have the kind of face people want to pummel.”

 “Hey, I like your face!” JJ piped up from the living room causing Garcia to snicker.

“You’re an exception, Jayje.” Emily insisted. “Because you know how ornery I get once I’ve been beaned in the head.”

 JJ waltzed into the kitchen and held out her glass for Garcia to pour more into. “Oh I wouldn’t say that’s the only reason, Agent Prentiss.” She teased in a singsong voice. 

Emily took a healthy gulp of her wine in lieu of an answer and shrugged, hiding her blush behind her cheeks warming with alcohol. “Right, like you have a laundry list of reasons to stick around.” She said bitterly, unable to stop herself

 JJ, undeterred, stepped into Emily’s personal space. “I do, actually, do you want to hear them?” 

Before Emily could stammer out a response, Garcia’s phone chimed merrily alerting all that she had a text message. Both Emily and JJ turned towards the hacker expectantly and Garcia fixed her face with an annoyed scowl she hoped was convincing. “Derek’s got another flat.” She said. “He’s going to have to wait for AAA.” 

“I’ll go get him.” Emily volunteered easily, frowning when Garcia shook her head vehemently. 

“No way kitten,” she said. “You’ve been drinking too much. Stay here with Jayje and I’ll go get him, I won’t be but a moment.” 

Emily nodded in the face of logic and she watched Garcia bundle up and head out the door. She wanted to ask about JJ’s apparent laundry list of reasons but she cleared her throat and downed some more of her wine instead.

“So when’s this big date you have with Antoine?” she asked, trying not to read into the lidded gaze JJ was giving her.

 JJ wrinkled her nose like she’d rather talk about anything else. “Tomorrow.”

 “You’re bringing him to Garcia’s party?” Emily couldn’t help the hurt tone that coloured the edges of her voice and she breathed out a guilty sigh of relief when JJ shook her head 

“No way,” JJ asserted. “We’re going to dinner and I’m going to the party afterwards. That way if he was only charming on first meeting, I can pretend like I have to be there sooner rather than later but the truth is I’ll probably be late to the party.”

Emily stopped herself from frowning by taking another drink. “You think it’ll go that well?”

JJ shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s certainly nice to look at but I couldn’t tell you either way if there was something there.” She shook her head like she was trying to get a sudden thought away from her. “Come on, let’s start the movies without them. If I know Garcia and I do, she’ll find a reason why she has to stay out with Morgan.”

 “You think so?” 

“I’ll bet you on it.” 

Emily smiled. “You’re on, Garcia is too much of a chicken like Morgan to make excuses to stay out.” 

JJ nodded gamely. “What are you going to give me when I win?”

Emily swallowed hard because JJ was looking at her through lidded eyes again and she wanted nothing more in that moment to have to guts to say she’d bet her a kiss but she bit the inside of her cheek knowing that she’d be the only one getting anything out of that bet either way and she wasn’t about to be selfish. But that didn’t mean she had to stop the playful flirtation that was a big part of their friendship. She stepped into JJ’s personal space and pretended to pick a piece of imaginary lint off the blonde’s shoulder. “I’m sure I’ll think of something.” She very nearly purred with a grin. She could have sworn she saw JJ sway on her feet like she was swooning but it was only for a second and she couldn’t be sure. 

“Better be something good, Prentiss, I’m very particular.”

“Funny. What makes you think I’m not going to win?”

 JJ scoffed and sauntered back into the living room where she sat down on the couch. “In your dreams, Emily.”

 “You got that right.” Emily muttered under her breath as she went out to the living room as well. “Horror since PG isn’t here to hide under one of us?” she offered, scanning her DVD collection.

 “Oh you just want to get beat in every way possible tonight, don’t you?” JJ asked, referring to the game they played with horror movies.

 “Maybe I just like being punished.” She said over her shoulder before turning back to the DVDs so she wouldn’t have to see JJ’s reaction. “Anyways,” she continued, not letting JJ answer her first statement. “I don’t know why you’re so cocky.”

“Maybe I’ve got reason to be.” JJ insisted and Emily only just barely resisted a visible shiver at how sultry JJ’s voice was. 

“Here,” Emily said, clearing her throat. “I bought this without watching it because I know we wanted to see it.” She said, holding up a DVD case. It’s a suspense thriller in case you were worried we were going to have to call an old priest and a young priest.”

“Hah-hah you jackass.” JJ laughed. “If you were anyone else, I’d deck you for making fun of me.” 

“Lucky I’m me then.” Emily asserted, popping the DVD into the player built into the TV and going to sit near JJ but not close enough to be invading her personal space.

A quarter of the way through the movie, when JJ had closed the distance between them to put her head on Emily’s shoulder, JJ’s phone pinged merrily alerting her to a text message:

  _Just go on without us, sugarplum_ Garcia had texted. _Morgan is feeling down and out about this Gisele thing so I’ve ordered a night on the town. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! (which leaves you open to do anything, if you catch my drift buttercup)_

“Hah!” JJ exclaimed triumphantly, startling Emily who was engrossed in the movie.

 “What?”

 “Garcia is taking Morgan out because apparently he’s ‘down in the dumps’ or some flimsy excuse. You owe me, Prentiss.”

“Okay, fine.” Emily groaned, “what do I owe you then?”

JJ lifted her head off Emily’s shoulder and considered her friend for a moment. In the half-light from the kitchen, Emily’s pupils had dilated and JJ could have sworn they got just a bit bigger but that was wishful thinking. “I’ll think of something.” She said. “I hope you like doing paperwork.”

“You’re insufferable.”

 “I know, but you love me anyways.”

“Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that.”

 By the end of the movie, JJ was reclining on the couch with Emily half on top of her, half pressed to the back of the couch with JJ’s arm around her and both of them passed out. JJ only awoke many hours later in the late afternoon when her phone started ringing. She was stunned into consciousness and shocked to find out what position she’d been sleeping in. Reaching over quickly for her phone so as not to wake Emily, she tried slipping out from under the older woman unnoticed.

“Jayje,” Emily mumbled, making her freeze. “Come back to bed baby.” It was clear then that Emily was still in a deep sleep and JJ smiled at the endearment and that she was the person she thought of while asleep but she would have to dwell on the implications later as she made her way down the hall to answer the call.

“Morgan, what do you want?” she asked worriedly.

“Look, JJ,” he started. “I don’t want you to make too big a deal out of this, but Garcia and I have been seeing each other.”

“I knew it!” JJ whisper-shouted, pumping a fist in the air.

“Yeah, yeah, look what does Garcia like for breakfast?”

“Why are you asking me? Did you spend the night? Tell me you spent the night.”

“I spent the night.”

“Yes!” she hissed in the same triumphant whisper-shout.

“Okay, I get it, just help me.”

“Don’t make anything.” JJ advised. “There’s a Dunkin Donuts two blocks to the right from Garcia’s building. Go there and get some cheesecake squares and she’s yours.”

“Thanks JJ, I owe you.”

“Damn straight.” She said proudly.

“Shut-up.”

“Not a chance.”

Morgan laughed and hung up on her and JJ made her way back to the living room where Emily was still passed out; sprawled on her stomach with one arm hanging off the edge of the couch.

“What am I going to do about you?” JJ whispered, careful not to wake her friend.

Emily stirred, drawn by the sound of JJ’s voice and blinked blearily at the blonde. “I fell asleep.” She said needlessly.

JJ laughed and wanted to address the goofy grin on Emily’s face, but happened to look at the clock on the wall. “Shit! I gotta go get ready, I’ll see you tonight Em!” she said, rushing out of the apartment.

“Yeah, later.” Emily said to her empty apartment.


	10. Chapter 10

Emily haunted the party like a ghost. Garcia had gone all out and invited a bunch of her own circle of friends who had brought other people and so on so the party was currently occupying three apartments including Garcia’s, plus most the hallway between them. Emily drifted aimlessly from room to room; taking occasional sips of the beer in her hand trying not to look as melancholy as she felt. Emily had come to the stark realization as JJ bolted out of her apartment to get ready for her date that she just couldn’t do it anymore.

She couldn’t be ‘just friends’ with JJ.

Not like they were used to anyway. It was in the way JJ had hurried out that afternoon. It was in the way she was so certain she was going to be late to the party tonight. It was in the way ‘I’m in love you’ sat at the tip of her tongue every time she talked to JJ and in the way she had to swallow it back down again. She thought she was strong enough to keep going through this, but she really wasn’t and the only way to protect her heart was to back away from their friendship.

She’d been practicing lines to say to JJ all night. All ‘it’s not you it’s me,’ all ‘we just can’t do this anymore,’ all ‘I need to be able to be safe,’ but nothing was sounding right. Everything in her head made her sound like a sad kicked puppy. It didn’t help that she felt like a sad kicked puppy. Emily frowned and flopped down on a couch that had an empty spot and sourly nursed her beer, startling when Garcia plopped cheerily beside her.

“What’s knittin, kitten?” Garcia asked, slapping a hand lightly on Emily’s thigh.

Emily winced despite the veritable love tap Garcia had delivered and swung her morose gaze onto her friend, trying not to look like she’d been sulking. “Nothing much. Have you seen JJ yet?”

 “No why, is she here?” Garcia looked around expectantly and shrugged when Emily shook her head. “I haven’t seen her. Why?”

“I just…need to talk to her.”

“Oh yeah?” Garcia perked up but Emily didn’t notice, instead she seemed to deflate.

“Yeah.” She stood up. “If you see her can you tell her to come find me?”

“No problem angelface.”

“Thanks Garcia.” Emily muttered before wandering back through the crowd. JJ was on her date; she was going to be late. She was probably having a fabulous time.

JJ was having a fabulous time. Antoine was personable, charming, and funny, all things that she looked for in a potential partner so why was it that she couldn’t get her head in this date? She knew why. Antoine had been the perfect gentleman. He was all the things she normally listed in her wants for a partner, he was handsome, he was attentive…

The only thing he wasn’t was Emily.

Had she gotten so bad in such a short span of time that she couldn’t even go on a date without feeling like she was doing Emily a disservice? That wasn’t fair. Not to her, not to the people she’d be dating, and not to Emily regardless of whether she knew or not. This was ridiculous; she couldn’t keep going like this. Something inside her had truly snapped that night at the movies and had broken a little further when she woke up with Emily wrapped around her. God, what she wouldn’t give to be able to go back to that moment. It wasn’t even like they’d never woken up cuddled into each other before it’s that everything was somehow different, more intense—everything meant more to JJ now.

That had to stop. She had to focus on Antoine who by all counts was a lovely man.

“So what do you think JJ?” Antoine asked, shocking JJ into looking at him. Oh god, what had they been talking about? The amused raise of his eyebrow and half-smirk that tweaked his lips let her know that she’d been caught and she breathed out a sigh.

“I’m sorry, Twan, I just…”

“Got your mind other places?”

He didn’t seem offended but she grimaced anyway. “I’m sorry, I swear I’m not this flaky.”

Antoine held up a hand across the dinner table and pat hers reassuringly a few times. “Don’t worry about it. I assume this has to do with that dark haired woman who was coming up the night I met you?”

JJ choked on the water she’d brought to her lips. “What makes you say that?”

“Come on, JJ, give me a _little_ credit.” He implored, flashing her a dimpled grin. “I’m not blind, I saw the way you looked at her when she was coming.”

JJ groaned and Antoine put a sympathetic hand on top of hers.

“Let me guess,” he said. “ _She_ didn’t notice the way you look at her.”

“If there’s a god and if god is merciful, I’ll be struck dead by lightning right now.”

Antoine laughed. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“You mean do I want to talk to you about my unrequited love for another woman while I’m on a date with you?”

“Well, yeah. What’s wrong with that?”

JJ huffed. “Why are you so nice?”

Antoine shrugged. “What do I gotta be mean about? Is she straight, is that the problem?”

JJ laughed. “Hardly.”

“She wasn’t dating that blonde girl with her?”

JJ shook her head. “No, she’s single.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Why are you being so understanding?”

Antoine shrugged again, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Like I said, what do I got to be mean about? We’ve all been there and as far as it being another woman?” he chuckled and kept her waiting while he took another bite of his dinner. “Not everyone is as straight as you think they are.”

JJ breathed out heavily and laughed at herself. “Okay, so it’s like this: I’m hopelessly and I mean _hopelessly_ in love with this woman but I have no idea if she feels the same way. I know she’s attracted to me, but that’s almost worse because if I start something and it means more to me than to her, I wouldn’t be able to take it and I don’t want to ruin our friendship which is fantastic.” Maybe it was because he was virtually a stranger or maybe it was the easy way he seemed to get her to open up, but JJ found it remarkably easy to lay her woes out to Antoine.

He leaned back in his chair and chewed on the end of a breadstick thoughtfully. “That sounds unnecessarily complicated.” He said finally, leaning forward again.

“Does it?”

“Sure. Have you told her how you feel?”

“God no.”

Antoine nodded. “So you don’t even know if you could be shooting yourself in the foot right now.”

“What do you mean?”

“You and this woman are close, right?”

“She’s my best friend.”

“Then you owe it to her to tell her how you feel. Worst case scenario is she doesn’t feel the same way and then,” he shrugged. “It gets a little awkward for a couple weeks and you go back to normal.” He held up a hand when JJ opened her mouth to protest. “Look, if you’re really so close, that’s how it’s gonna play out. Trust me, I’ve been there. But if she does feel the same way? Then you guys have been wasting too much time.”

JJ was sure that Garcia had said something similar to her before, but hearing it from an impartial party really made it click for JJ and she nodded enthusiastically. “You know what? You’re right.”

“I make that a habit. So you gonna tell her?”

“Yeah, I actually am.”

“Good."

JJ’s text alert going off interrupted whatever else Antoine was going to say and JJ glanced down at her phone, it was a message from Garcia.

_‘Do you know what’s wrong with Emily?’_

_‘Emily?’_ JJ texted back. _‘Why would anything be wrong with her?’_

_‘I don’t know, but she seems really down. She’s bumming everyone in a three foot radius of her out and I thought you might know what’s up.’_

JJ looked up at Antoine and down at her phone before nodding to herself and coming to a decision. _‘I don’t know but I’ll be right there.’_

_‘Aren’t you on a date?’_

_‘Not anymore.’_

“I gotta go.” JJ told Antoine, pulling out her wallet.

“Let me,” Antoine replied, holding up a hand to stop her from removing her wallet from her purse. “Go get your girl and you can buy me dinner later and tell me all about it.”

JJ grinned at him. “You’re fabulous, you know that?”

“Don’t I.” he laughed as JJ strode out of the restaurant.

JJ moved with purpose through the crowd between the open apartments that were serving as ‘party central,’ on the lookout for Emily. She spied Garcia in the middle of a throng of dancing bodies dancing with Morgan and she went over to her friend, leaning in close to her ear so she could be heard over the music. “Have you seen Em?”

Garcia shook her head. “Not since I sent you that text! Try the apartment across from here, she said she wanted some air and they have a balcony.”

JJ nodded and waved off her friend’s knowing smirk as she made her way to the balcony of the apartment across from Garcia’s. Partway there, she spotted Emily leaning with her elbows on the balcony railing, her back to the festivities. Unlike that time in the restaurant when she’d decided to confess her feelings and had chickened out, JJ felt a renewed sense of purpose and she slid through the crowed to get to Emily, touching her elbow lightly to get her attention.

Emily jumped at the touch but when she turned, instead of relaxing at realizing who it was, she looked even more tense.

“Hey, Em.” JJ said just as Emily said her name. JJ laughed but Emily shook her head.

“JJ, I have to get this out.”

“Get what out?”

“See, I had been practicing what to say but nothing sounded right. Nothing sounds right still but what it all boils down to is that I have to take a step back from our friendship.”

JJ’s heart plummeted. “What? Why?”

Emily took a deep breath and looked away from the hurt look on the blonde’s face. “I was hoping you weren’t going to ask why but of course you’d want to know why, why wouldn’t you? It’s only natural when your best friend says they can’t be friends with you anymore that you would want to know why. Unless you find out that your best friend has been secretly in love with you” JJ’s breath hitched, had she heard that right? “and then maybe you’d be relieved. Ecstatic even, well the thing is,”

“Emily.” JJ interrupted softly, smiling involuntarily at how nervous Emily was. She had heard right, there was only one reason why Emily would be so anxious that she’d start rambling.

“No, JJ, I have to get this out you have to let me get this out or I’m never going to. God, I’m so sorry, this is such a mess and,”

“Em.”

“All after you just came from what was probably a great date and here I am just being the most pathetic,”

“Emily Prentiss."

“Excuse for a lovesick human being because that’s what I am JJ, I’m lovesick, I’m so sorry, I just,”

This time Emily was cut off by JJ’s lips on hers and her eyes grew wide for a fraction of a second before fluttering closed and she gave herself over to the sensation. She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve JJ kissing her, but she wanted to do it again and again if this was the result. The blonde’s mouth was softer and warmer than Emily had daydreamed about; the fingers tangling in her hair more deft and demanding, the tongue running along the seam of her lips more insistent and she more willing to open her mouth than she had been in her daydreams too (and that was saying something).

They stood making out on the balcony like a couple of teenagers until a longing groan rumbled up from JJ’s throat when Emily bit down gently on the blonde’s bottom lip and JJ slowed their frenzied pace until they were giving each other a series of chaste kisses and then resting their foreheads together, both of them breathing hard, JJ’s hands still tangled in Emily’s hair and Emily’s hands having found purchase at JJ’s hips.

“Wow.” JJ breathed.

“What was that for?” Emily asked in a trembling voice, pulling back slightly to look JJ in the eye. Her face was flushed and her lips swollen and Emily felt a sense of joy well within her.

“I had to get you to shut up somehow.” JJ replied, rolling her eyes, causing Emily to chuckle.

“Feel free to shut me up any time.”

“I love you too.” JJ murmured against Emily’s lips as she tilted her head in for another kiss, this one slower and sweeter. “I’ve been in love with you for what feels like forever.”

“You have?”

JJ nodded. “I know we have a lot to talk about and compare notes on, but” she glanced through the balcony doors to where the party was really getting into high gear. “Can we just get out of here?”

Emily nodded back. “Yeah, of course, you want to talk?”

JJ moved quickly, gripping Emily’s shoulders and pinning her roughly against the brick wall to the side of Emily, the kiss she delivered to her was hungry and insistent and she rolled her tongue tellingly over Emily’s, swallowing the moan that erupted from the brunette. She pushed her leg between Emily’s and lifted her thigh while biting down on Emily’s lower lip before stepping back. “Talking isn’t what I had in mind, Prentiss."

Emily looked dazed. Emily _was_ dazed. She simply nodded dumbly, drunk on hormones and let JJ lead her back through the party. She waved vaguely at Garcia who she only knew they passed because when she hollered to ask where they were going, JJ’s “away from here” had come out in such a way that it left nothing to the imagination where they were going and Garcia’s answering squeal nearly pierced through the haze of lust that had wrapped itself around her. Nearly.

The only thing that mattered to her was JJ’s hand in hers and the coquettish wink the blonde threw over her shoulder at her. This was right; this was how it was supposed to go. Emily could kick herself for letting so much fear and uncertainty get in the way of what she and JJ could have but now that it was happening, she couldn’t find it in her to feel any kind of regret. Not even for how long it had taken. This was right; this was how it was supposed to go and it was better than any of her dreams.

**End**


End file.
